Concert Review: The Red Paintings

As Mindless Self Indulgence was arranging their openers, they were starting out with Death Spells, where I have strong affection for the members, and closing with Chantal Claret, whom I also really like. The one empty stretch, that included the Portland show, ended up being filled by The Red Paintings. I had never heard of them.

It ended up being really okay. Wikipedia lists them as orchestral art rock. That makes a reasonable amount of sense. It went beyond musical performance while still being much more musical than performance art. And art is not in this case figurative. There were two people and one canvas being painted throughout the course of the show. The only even remotely comparable show was Gogol Bordello, and that had a completely different feeling to it.

I did get to do a fair amount of listening before the show, and it was interesting in terms of the pairing with MSI, because their sounds are so different. In that you are getting an experience beyond a concert, that kind of makes sense, and it sounds like that may correlate with Death Spells as well.

So, there’s that, but my initial impression of The Red Paintings was dreamlike and melancholy. It made perfect sense that they did a cover of “Mad World”.

That is also a bit of an overstatement. Some of the songs have a very dreamlike atmosphere. That is partly based on the effective use of strings like violin and cello, and also a willingness to do things differently. “The Streets Fell Into My Window” does not follow normal song rules and has the air of a fever dream.

The melancholy does happen too, but it is not all that happens. Sometimes you are getting a glimpse of a sci-fi future instead, or there are religious overtones, or something remarkably primal. It varies. That was kind of how the concert was. There was an overall feeling, but also it changed.

I’m sure this is largely due to driving force behind the band, Trash McSweeney. Looking at him on the stage, he seems fragile, despite the bulk of his hat and clothing. Just as it seems that he will be engulfed, there is a shift and he begins thrashing on the guitar, and it switches from mood to motion. I’m not explaining it well, but if you’re not going to be seeing them in concert, listening to the track “It Is As It Was” may give you a partial idea. Maybe listen to “We Belong In the Sea” right before that.

I think for all that my favorite is “Sing”. Maybe that is the culmination of it all, an exhortation to not just be around art, but to produce it yourself, no matter what.

Just as a warning, there is some language, but it will seem pretty minor after tomorrow’s band.