Concert Review: The Stiletto Formal at Chain Reaction
By Brian Spiegel
If he hadn’t had taken the cowards way out several years ago, The Stiletto Formal may have been Hunter S. Thompson’s favorite band. Just like Thompson’s best known books and articles, Phoenix’s The Stiletto Formal’s music is chaotic, rough, complex, dusty, and loud, yet, at the same time, grounded, melodic and, in a strange way, beautiful. None of it should work. Cello’s shouldn’t work with shrieks and maraca’s, but like a drug fueled political comedy set in Las Vegas with an anti-hero sports writer as the main character, if you somehow find a way to make all fit together, it can work better then you can imagine.
The Stiletto Formal is also one of the best bands you can ever see in a club setting. The bands live performances should be the subject of legends, if only more then 20 or so people decided to catch their gigs. Last Wednesday’s show at Chain Reaction in Anaheim found the band relegated to their typical way too short 30 minute set (according to the venues website the band was headlining the show, yet they played the third of five sets and directly after one of the worst live band I have ever seen in my life) and with a crowd that, while I will admit was dedicated, numbered between around 25-30.
No matter, the bands six song set was vintage Formal. The five piece clicked on all cylinders, especially lead singer Kyle Howard whose tiny performance area in the center of the stage was cluttered with three mics, two keyboards, three extra drums and several maracas. During the bands opening song “We Are All Muckrakers” Howard traded loud wails with strong vocals as danced around the center of the stage like a man reacting to the calls of a snake charmer. This was all accentuated by strobe lights which cast the band in a bright glow which added to the almost maniac feel of the song.
The bands next two songs “Nighcap on the Sante Fe” and “6 PM Your Time,” both had soft, desolate openings, followed by a quick pickup which led to pure anarchy. On “6 PM,” Kyle moved between all three microphones, including one that was connected to a sound effects keyboards which distorted his voice to the point where it played the role of a background instrument as bassist Paul Neely pounded along on an adjacent drum.
On “Fiesta, Fiesta, Fiesta, Fiesta” Jimi Lamp’s guitar was grinding while Pat McCarthy pounding drumming made gave the song a hard backing. If anything, “Fiesta” is the most maniac of the bands songs, just a back and forth of both the hard with the soft and a song that makes you think, in the mist of the bands sonic attack, that somewhere the dead are being raised.
The bands solo foray into their back catalog was a performance of “The Fall of Ambrose Bierce”, which hit well (note to band: more old stuff please, we like it) before the band finished their set with the booming “50 CC’s of Anything Potent”. Another heavy hitter, the song let electric cello player Sunny Davis shine as the sounds she created with her instrument sounded so erotic that you felt kinda guilty watching her move the bow against the strings. The show ended abruptly with Kyle finishing up his last verse and quickly hanging his microphone haphazardly on its stand as the band finished up their closing chords. It was over as abruptly as it began, no goodby’s and no grand last song. Just an ending that matched the music. It was something just seemed to perfectly sum up the performance, and a symbolism that Hunter would have had a feel day with.
Check out a video of them live here:
