Sleigh Bells. The two words spread like wildfire across the campus. Those who knew the band were ecstatic from the day the FNL committee booked them. Other students quickly hopped on the bandwagon, befitting of their infectious fame.
The duo Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller come from diverse musical backgrounds. Miller was formerly a guitarist for the successful hardcore band Poison the Well, and Krauss was in the female pop band Rubyblue as a teenager. Labeling their current band under a genre is difficult; however, they described their music as rhythmic, loud, intensely melodic, and always heavy – eventually, they settled on “heavy pop.”
The story of their first meeting is a fantastic one, and seems fit to be the premise of a new hit independent film. Krauss, working as an elementary school teacher, was out to lunch with her mother, when Miller, their waiter, mentioned that he was a musician looking for a female vocalist. Krauss’ mother was quick to volunteer her, and the rest is history.
A few hours before the show, I found them spread out across the College Voice office, Miller chatting with his light and sound crew, Krauss meticulously prepping her hair. They each said that they really enjoy the atmosphere of college shows.
“They might be our favorite,” said Miller. “Everyone’s so energetic…you guys get so into it.”
The band also seemed particularly glad to have made it that night as heavy wind, rain, and lightning flashes pounded outside the windows. There were threats of an even larger storm, and possibly a tornado, reported for New York City.
“By having us here, you probably saved our lives,” Krauss said, laughing.
Their meteoric rise over the past year has been quite remarkable, considering that their first performance was only about a year ago. Last fall, Sleigh Bells were the darlings of the New York festival circuit. In a short time, their first few EPs were picked up and instantly lauded by Pitchfork, the New York Times, and various music blogs. The excitement around the release of their first album, Treats (2010), was the kind usually reserved for an A-list band on their 3rd or 4th studio release.
When I asked Miller whether he thought Sleigh Bells was in danger of burning out, he said he wasn’t worried. “I see success as more resources,” he said, gesturing to the group chatting around the table. “It’s nice to be able to afford to bring [your own] people.”
With a team of guys consistently setting up their lights and sound, the band is able to maintain tight control over their presentation. Sleigh Bells bring their own lights with them, and specify that there must always be two massive subwoofers at their venues. Their next show was to be at Brandeis, but the university didn’t have such equipment. The band’s general response to this statement is, “That’s unfortunate.” Krauss and Miller said they were still booked to go, but speculated that the university was probably rushing out shopping for the equipment that night.
Opening for them that night was Time Crisis, an ensemble alternative-electronica band helmed by Conn students Will Brown ’11 and Jon Markson ‘12. The stage was set up so that the six-person ensemble was nestled into a veritable cave of amplifiers and other sound equipment. The band had a good, albeit unfocused jam sound that was reflected in the behavior of the crowd, who milled around Cro, listening, chatting, and having an enjoyable, if relatively relaxed time. The fun atmosphere of Time Crisis was a calm before the storm, helping the audience deal with the vagueness of their headliner’s start time and prepare for the extreme performance to follow.
After Time Crisis left the stage, there was a lot of darkness and confusion in the 1962 Room. But as soon as the industrial roar of Sleigh Bells’ “A/B Machines” assaulted the room through those twin subwoofers, the stage, the room, and perhaps the whole building was immediately taken over. Students were instantly entranced, along for the noisy ride, head-banging along with the shrill rolling guitar in “Straight A’s” or belting out lyrics of their airy hit “Rill Rill”: Wonder what your boyfriend thinks about your braces / What about them / I’m all about them.
In fact, Sleigh Bells’ effect on the crowd was unlike anything I’ve seen at Conn. Miller’s forceful guitar riffs and the backing track’s pounding beats had students swaying and thumping even more intensely than at Dan Deacon’s gloriously energetic, atonal show last spring. Even Santogold’s much-praised Floralia performance two years ago, despite the crowd jumping with her rhythmic dancers and sharp, cooing vocals, couldn’t compare to the dance fever whipped up by Krauss’ snarls, moans, and enticements, which generated riotous fits of energy in the crowd.
As Miller noted, the careful tuning and preparation of the lighting and sound equipment allowed them complete control over the mood of the room, which was critical to their success. The crowd was packed in as tightly as possible, pushing and grinding and moshing in an effort to get closer to the two powerful entities on stage, so much that the front row was regularly pitched forward onto the stage.
At the end, as the lights went up and “SOS” by ABBA began playing (whom Sleigh Bells claim as an influence, along with Pixies, Magik Markers, and Slayer), the crowd poured on stage to thank the duo. Some were simply thanking each other. Everyone left the event dead tired, yet claimed to be feeling magically energized and ready to keep partying through the night.
Though it led to a wild Thursday night, Sleigh Bells’ free concert was actually brought to us by SAC’s Friday Nights Live (FNL) committee. FNL Chair Andrew Crimer ’11 says he is working to create FNL events whose consistent quality is very evident to the student body. Though there is a focus this year on having “bigger names and fewer shows,” there will still be mixture of quality local and Conn bands. This move is more an effort to bring a weekly dedication to the FNLs. As he put it, “We want people to trust our judgment.”
The committee also hopes that with the same caliber of music will come an equal amount of interest. “If we have bands here that some or a lot of people have heard of, they’ll be excited and go. But if we have bands who almost no one has heard of, they could get just as excited.”
Considering that this came about as an FNL booking, I’m already very excited and seriously looking forward to this year in music at Conn.
