INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Show preview: Film School
Film SchoolLocals Only, 2449 E. 56th St.
Wednesday, July 16, 8 p.m., $6, 21+
“Shoegaze” works pretty well as a genre description, applied reflexively to any rock band that incorporates drone, distortion and generally aims for a layered guitar-based wall of sound. So yeah, Film School is probably “shoegaze,” with a whole lot of debt to My Bloody Valentine, and I even hear a little Yo La Tengo (Film School’s Lorelei Plotczyk sounds a bit like YLT’s Georgia Hubley when fighting through all that dense noise). But there’s also that potentially dismissive connotation of “shoegaze” when it comes to live shows; as in, why would anyone want to watch a band stare at their feet for an hour? I don’t have a great answer for that, except to say that Film School is no more or less dynamic than your average indie rock band, and that unless you’re at the cabaret, it’s more about the music than the acting.
Film School’s third and latest, 2007’s Hideout, shows the band a bit more interested in working with textures and moods than songs, although there’s a couple comparatively catchy and compact tunes scattered among the drones. “Sick Hipster Nursed By Suicide Girl” is an awfully clever title, but such wit isn’t the norm: Vocals (and lyrics) are always secondary in the mix, and not of too much interest when intelligible.
Opening: Experimental dance rockers We Are Hex took a little break after losing a member, but are back in a four-piece setting; their heavy, muddy art-pop sound is a nice fit for the headliner.