1 Architecture in Helsinki's Kellie Sutherland
Don't mess with Helsinki — unless you work at the drive-thru
Architecture in Helsinki brings attitude and innocence to Austin
By Erik Adams
Published: November 19th, 2007 | 10:25pm
November 14, 2007, in Austin — Architecture in Helsinki may have survived lineup shifts and songwriter-vocalist Cameron Bird's relocation from Melbourne to Brooklyn, but the band was nearly stopped in its tracks (literally) by the employees of a Whataburger in Denton, Texas.
"Apparently it's against the law to go through the drive-thru without a car," Bird told the lively crowd at Emo's in Austin the next night. In a show of the ingenuity that enabled the band's seamless transition from twee mini-orchestra to tighter, funkier six-piece, Bird and company called a cab in which they secured their food.
It takes a brash and innocent energy to walk up to an intercom and ask for a burger, and it was that brand of energy that Architecture brought to the outdoor stage of this Austin institution.
Befitting the band's metamorphosis-happy history, most of the performance was devoted to reworked pieces. "Nevereverdid" was infused with some righteous feedback, "Do the Whirlwind" traveled at a punkish one-two, one-two clip, and "Lazy" played like a chronological trip through the oeuvre of Talking Heads from 1980-88.
Maybe it's the fact that he was on my side of the stage for most of the time, but utility infielder Gus Franklin proved to be Architecture's secret star, jumping (again, literally) between trombone, keyboards, samplers, a ride cymbal, and bongos. All background vocals ought to be as neck tendon-strainingly impassioned as his.
With their pneumatic grooves, songs about computer love, and ripped-straight-from-an-American-Apparel-ad countenances, openers Glass Candy provided the come-down before things even got a chance to rev up. Let's hope the coming synth-pop/electro revolution (it grows nearer every time Dan Deacon fires up his iPod) is less like Glass Candy and more like Architecture's "Debbie." Or, better yet, like the rapping beast of a B-side that Bird and Kellie Sutherland released mid-set, which could have people the world over strolling through fast food pick-up lines.
Issue #35
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