What I believe was their Toronto debut, French project Nouvelle Vague performed to a sold-out show this past Friday at the Rivoli. I hadn't been to the Rivoli for several years and it looks like the restaurant/bar has been renovated(or maybe it's just been a long time, and I just don't remember what it looked like). The live music room at the back looked pretty much the way I rememberd it but bigger. Opener, Michael Holt performed a brief set of keyboard driven tunes ranging from the absurd(the first song of the set which featured a barrage of incoherent vocal rhythms set to a playful melody) to jaunty pop confections(like "Essex House").It was Nouvelle Vague's cool album cover(the one featuring a white, black and blue graphic image of a demure young woman) which drew me to investigate this band's music late last year. I discovered that they were covering late 70's-early 80's punk and post-punk classics in a rather unconventional sad-core/bossa nova/french pop fashion. I enjoyed what I heard, in particular their bossa nova spin on Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart". I went to the show to see if Nouvelle Vague could pull it off live and I'm glad to say they were fairly successful.
With the keyboardist strolling onto stage to take a seat followed by the drummer and guitarist, samples of crickets chirping and ocean waves crashing filled the air until the group's two female vocalists took the stage. The dichotomy between the two female vocalists was apparent. One of the ladies had a pink wig on but had a sort-of 60's-ish panache about her that reminded me of Lulu. The other female vocalist with her long dark hair, short black miniskirt, and pink tights had a more vamp-ish quality in her stage presence and vocal style. While there was a great deal of bossa nova rhythms both in the guitar arrangements and percussion, I was glad to hear the variety in their music. The sad-core version of Modern English's "I Melt With You" was a highlight, with vocals and an instrumental arrangement that sounded as if Mazzy Star performed the song. The see-saw rhythms of their cover of The Specials' "Friday Night, Saturday Morning" also went over well with the crowd which featured some audience participation during the chorus and a dazzling tempo increment during the latter part of the song. More obscure covers scattered the set(like their brooding version of "Marian" a Sisters of Mercy song or their quiet exotic take on The Cure's "A Forest") and their unfamiliarity to me actually kept things more interesting to me than if the whole set had been overly too familiar.
The instrumental foundation of the songs was solid with an arsenal of different percussive instruments, textured acoustic guitar arrangements and a swirling array of keyboards and sampled sounds. I think there were a couple of song choice missteps such as Bauhaus' "Bela Legosi's Dead" or The Undertones' "Teenage Kicks"; while they were pleasant versions, really who could improve on the originals? In the end I thought that Nouvelle Vague more than proved that they're just a 'cover band'. Strangely, I wasn't particulary driven to buy their CD at the merch table(maybe if it had been less expensive than the $20 price tag). I enjoyed them on a musical level of course, but part of my enjoyment was also based on nostalgia. Eventually, I'll want to go back to the originals. [photos from the show]
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