I’m pretty hard on 2-man bands and even harder on laptop bands. The White Stripes are the quintessential 2-piece garage rockers with a superior singer / songwriter / musician at the helm. They write great songs and can rock small venues, but despite their prowess (well, Jack’s anyway) they can be really weak at festivals and large theaters. Same for the Black Keys and just about anybody else in that boat (canoe). Vancouver’s Japandroids like volume and embrace the loud, spacey shoegaze, Pumpkin-style guitar, which helps them out a great deal. Touring behind one of the best albums of 2012 doesn’t hurt either. They rocked The Social on Tuesday, but I fear I wouldn’t want to see them at a larger venue as some of the power of their tunes would be lost in a bigger space without the dynamics of more musicians.
Nov 292012