S.F.’s Weekend brings British isles gloom to the Echo tonight
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Ordinarily, the occasion of a band in town who draws from Joy Division and The Jesus & Mary Chain wouldn’t merit much note (in fact, it might merit a turn to the liquor cabinet and a lament on the rote state of rock music today). But here’s the secret about the fast-rising San Francisco trio Weekend -- they might be one of the best at sad-sack post-punk since the original articles.
Though they had the misfortune to come along right when the vowel-challenged R&B act The Weeknd stormed blogs and got a Drake co-sign, these dudes might be in it for a longer haul. Their 2011 full-length ‘Sports’ perfectly inverted the formula of the Mary Chain’s ‘Psychocandy’ -- big melodies up front, acid-rain guitar blasts in the margins (which, coincidentally, is what we always really wanted from the brothers Reid anyway).
A new follow-up EP ‘Red’ elaborates on it nicely: ‘Hazel’ gets their biggest pop chorus to date while streamlining their guitar tangle into windows-down driving music; singer Shaun Durkan’s deadpan voice never sounded better than on ‘The One You Want,’ and the band’s rough edges make more sense with songs such as these at their center. If you missed Peter Hook and the Light doing ‘Closer’ and ‘Unknown Pleasures,’ the Echo tonight is your best chance for a mulligan on that.
Weekend plays the Echo tonight, 1822 Sunset Blvd. 8:30 p.m. $12. attheecho.com.
RELATED:
Facebook’s music ambitions get louder
Pink Floyd to roll out extensive catalog reissue
Wilco’s Nels Cline: ‘L.A. gets no respect as far as culture’
-- August Brown
