Not-quite-swooning with DeVotchKa

It's not a good sign when a band is upstaged by a tuba.

Coming into DeVotchKa's show at the El Rey last night, it was easy to get caught up in expecting Great Things, a sort of unhinged and perhaps theatrical mix of all the elements that make up the band's arresting little stew on record -- hints of Balkan folk, Latin guitar, the occasional nod toward klezmer. Yet for all the expectations that have elevated the Denver band to playing Disney Hall, as well as a host of appearances on the summer festival merry-go-round, it was difficult to shake the feeling that there was something missing at last night's performance.

Vocalist Nick Urata was certainly game, clad in a rumpled tuxedo and working a fallen lothario stage presence that occasionally recalled a Philharmonic-subscribing Greg Dulli, and his voice alternately soared between an expressive moan and a sort of motor-mouthed operatic swoon on material from the band's latest, "A Mad And Faithful Telling." But as much as Urata and his band's sophisticated look and romantic sound are clearly as carefully orchestrated as its string section, the juxtaposition created between DeVotchKa and its second- and third-world muses seemed occasionally at odds.

With the exception of a few high-energy instrumental breaks, the show never lost its sophisticated composure, but the multicultural musical stew DeVotchKa is drawing from often aspires to create a sound of physical and emotional release. For all of the energy and commitment on display from the band, the most festive presence was the bundle of Christmas lights jammed into the mouth of Jeanie Schroder's sousaphone. In short, it was an evening of dance music whose inescapable reserve afforded precious little dancing.

By that measure, San Francisco-based openers Rupa & the April Fishes fairly walked away with the show, mining many of the same Latin, gypsy and klezmer elements as the headliners but consolidating them into a faster, tighter and simply more fun stew that left them sounding more like a global party band than high-minded, night-at-the-theater-ready sophisticates.

Which is a shame. Between DeVotchKa, their more gregarious cousins Gogol Bordello and an audience that featured a surprising number of fresh-faced faux Romany in flowing scarves and hoop earrings (gyp-sters?), there's clearly a thirst for the genuine expression this kind of cultural mix can offer. (Certainly a few fashion watchers tend to agree.) Though much of their crowd was still delighted to bask in DeVotchKa's occasionally intoxicating sound, it was difficult not to wonder how the evening would have progressed had we been exposed to an even more potent mix.

-- Photo and post by Chris Barton

Comments

[Jordan Catalano]

You said "Gypster." Ha.