The stage at the Black Cat was crowded before the band even came on. With 33 instruments (everything from trombones and keyboards to zithers and novelty noise makers), there was precious little room in which to fool around. When the members of Architecture in Helsinki finally hit the stage, they were all business - the most fun, entertaining and danceable business around.
"We expected there to be just a handful of government employees here," joked front man Cameron Bird at their nearly sold out show on Friday. It seems the band never grew jaded by touring. "I'm always excited to go to a place I've never been before and there are people to see us. That still blows me away," said drummer/guitarist/singer James Cecil in an interview last summer.
That's unusual, especially since the band has been on the road, as multi-instrumentalist Jamie Mildren put it, "pretty much forever." Said Cecil: "We've been touring the last couple of years pretty much solidly, so we're pretty used to it by now."
The exhaustion was visible only in flickers on the faces of the band members, and never lasted long. It was clear they had their show down to a science long ago, and can now go all-out and experiment. Little extended jams filled space between songs, the music pausing only for a "thank you" or "Dubya" joke. The band members wandered around the gorgeously cluttered stage, picking up instruments or auxiliary percussion, spitting out a couple of notes or atmospheric jangle and moving on.
The set meandered through some of their most catchy and notable material, touching on cuts from their first record (2004's great "Fingers Crossed") and their latest release ("In Case We Die"). The band sees the newest album as an improvement.
"I think we were pretty successful in making it sound more substantial, I guess, more solid," Cecil said. "I think we're more accomplished as a band now. We can hold a groove together, which we weren't able to do on 'Fingers Crossed.'"
The band also played a couple of covers, most notably "Love is the Drug" by Roxy Music. An unlikely highlight of the show was "Vanishing," the last song from the 2004 release. On record the song is slightly repetitive, but live the band perfromed it with great energy and tension. Architecture in Helsinki is at its collective best when they all work in unison, playing as a band as much as singing as a chorus, with everyone pitching in.
The main attraction was preceded by Philly's Dr. Dog, who have been accompanying AiH for a couple of weeks. The quintet from Illadelphia, fronted by a bona fide Tom Petty doppelganger, were energetic and tight, but deep down there was something vaguely irksome about their set. Maybe it was the multiple uninspired sing alongs or the overly-cocky rock star swagger of the aforementioned Heartbreaker dead ringer.
Before Dr. Dog, local quintet Exit Clov rocked the pleasantly full Black Cat. The young band was only helped by their inexperience; their few green mistakes would have been less excusable from a more seasoned band. Their songs were catchy and the two front women, switching between keyboard, guitar and vocal duties, were as easy on the eyes as they were talented. Keep an eye out for these guys.
The show ended with the extended version of the dance song "Do the Whirlwind." The crowd got down like they were being paid andthe band got down like they were enjoying the hell out of themselves. Dr. Dog came on again for AiH's last song to further clutter the stage and make more noise. The lyrics in "Vanishing" seemed to take on new meaning Friday night: "Is this a fling?/It's seven days and you're already vanishing." It was one o'clock, they had been playing over an hour, and were so good that the entire audience still wondered: how can they be finished already?
