Parenthetical Girls entranced the Cafe du Nord tonight. The lead singer, who of course is named Zac, warmed up by shaking his booty while facing the drummer. He was wearing gold flood pants and a plum colored sweatshirt with "Downey" on it. Not the fabric softener, but the city of car dealerships in So. Cal. where "Go see Cal" sold cars and rode elephants. Zac's slightly sunken cheeks and high cheekbones were no doubt downy not that long ago. He has intense slightly sunken eyes, Rimbaud blue, and sensuous lips.
Zac sings in a trance-like state highly-emotional songs accompanied by two keyboardists while he plays the guitar. He sings very high, sometimes breaking into yodeling (hi Bow). He also heads into the audience and at one point out the side door into the alley - all this without an expensive Wayne-Newton-style gold cordless mic. At one point he played Bryce's table with a drumstick.
The songs were varied and though the band used to be all electronic/computer they are very live and alive now. One keyboardist also plays a mini glockenspiel. At one point Zac played the Melodica without the tube which was very erotic. His homoerotic lyrics included "I learned that two can fit into one" and "You look just like me." We bought a signed copy of their first pink album.
photos by Sarah Meadows
3 comments:
Parenthetical is a code name for basenjis, so that's probably why he yodeled. St. Etienne had a great song called Downey which is also, of course, the home town of the Carpenters.
It's well-known that soon all music will simply be electronic bloops and bleeps, so Parenthetical Girls must be growing backward, like Benjamin Button. Which is even more ironic considering the many ordinary Downeyites who helped America win the Space Race.
I can't get past Zac's lips, heavens to betsy!
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