Shadow Shadow Shade is a Los Angeles band, which produces a sound bigger than the room can contain, reconciling many sonic ideas at the same time, and when you listen to them live, you think you have been waiting for this for a long time.
On the stage of the Echo on Monday night, they were 7, and so, understandably they could make a lot of noise, but what a noise! It’s Queen meets Arcade Fire meets The Animals meets the Californian sunshine of the Mamas and Papas (although this same sun seems to have disappeared lately), and it’s buoyant, filled with lyrical surges thanks to Claire McKeow’s soprano operatic voice. Described like this, it may appear completely messy or chaotic, but on the contrary, they work like a big orchestral ensemble which always falls on its feet in a perfect manner.
With ‘Is this a tempest in the shape of a bell’, they are not afraid of the wide and to-the-roof-bombastic declaration, nor scared of the epic with ‘Pale of Fern’ and its theatrical cavalcade galloping along guitar solos, or with ‘Your perfect Wilderness’ and its cinematic spaghetti western feeling.
With two drummers on stage, triumphant horns and soaring male-female vocal harmonies, they transform almost each of their songs to joyous shout-out-loud anthems like with ‘Say Yes’, which will hook you at the first listening.
But they are in no way new on the LA scene, Brian Canning, Steven Scott, Aaron Burrows and Brent Turner were part of the band Irving, Sam Johnson is a multi-instrumentalist, and guitarist bassist Thomas Biller has worked with many bands (even Kanye West!) and produced Warpaint’s upcoming album. Their first incarnation was under the name Afternoons that they had to change because a Welsh band had almost the same idea first.
They have released a full album available on iTunes, and you can also check out some of their operatic pieces here: