the dope report

By David Downs

Danish rock duo The Raveonettes seduced and betrayed a few hundred Bay Area music aficionados Monday night with 90-minute session of heart-achingly gorgeous rock and roll that left us crying for more.

Under the influence Buddy Holly’s “Rave On” and The Ronettes, the seven-year-old, critically acclaimed Raveonettes have yet to hit big in America, even though their fourth LP came out this year on Vice Records. All the better for the jaded critics, fellow musicians and industry types comprising the intimate audience at Bimbo’s in North Beach Monday, part of a small tour. Wildly talented lead singer Sharin Foo, and partner in crime guitarist Sune Rose Wagner masterfully performed new album In and Out Of Control as well as cuts from ‘07’s Lust Lust Lust and some stuff from The Raveonettes’ archives.

So vast has The Raveonettes’ back catalog become, that few knew the words to the opening tracks, prompting Foo to disclaim “that was a little something from the vaults.” But Foo and Wagner promptly transferred into recognized ... Out of Control single “The Last Dance” (about a heroin overdose), and the other high water marks from the album, like “Breaking Into Cars”, “D.R.U.G.S.”, “Bang”, and personal favorite “Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)”.

“Boys Who Rape” offers the perfect example of The Raveonettes’ sound. It opens with stabs of oblique, distorted chords, then transfers into the titular chorus. It would be heavy-handed if Foo and Wagner weren’t singing it like 50’s doo-wop candy pop, two-part harmonizing the whole way through. Like a serial killer, they repeatedly seduced pop lovers Monday with their sweet sound and then abducted them with lyrical content like My girl is a little animal / she always wants to fuck off “Little Animal”. More forceful and louder than the album, but with little changes to arrangements, The Raveonettes live is a reflection of their recordings rather than a reinvention. Backed by a session bassist and drummer, all eyes were on the black-clad Foo – the femme fatale of The Raveonettes’ noir – who’s self-assured smile, and swinging blond bob seemed to indicate she was human, although the possibility that she was a hyper-advanced Fembot sent from the future to destroy us seemed equally plausible.

It wasn’t really an out of control show, though. Maybe it was because it was Monday, maybe the tempos were so slow, but the audience was content to nod heads, shuffle feet, and clap ebulliently at song’s end. Inside my head I kept seeing a couple slow-dancing to The Raveonettes on the bow of the huge cruise liner as it lay in murky, frozen waters at the bottom of the ocean. Not exactly moshpit music, thank god.

Speaking of mosh pits, openers Crocodiles warmed up with some good, loud, dense, post-punky garage rock featuring phenomenal guitar work and a magnetic lead singer. Check “Neon Jesus” and bow down to the only good thing to come from San Diego in a long time.

(This has been a TDR exclusive report. Read more of our exclusives this week like a review of Pixies Live, and Modern Warfare 2.)