The trio Lady Danville was joyously awaited by the crowd at the Hammer Museum on Thursday night, people were clapping and cheering, but the ambiance was staying polite and friendly,…. and very young, as the courtyard was filled with UCLA students. Well, no wonder, the three Lady Danville guys are members of UCLA’s Awaken A Cappella group, and they had supporters!
The indie pop trio, colorful without being too eccentric, built nice and soft vocal harmonies, hitting the Death-Cab-for-Cutie button in my brain right away. Matthew Frankel on drums and percussion was at the front center, Dan Chang on guitar, with his Elvis-haircut and butterfly-neck, looked like an Asian dandy, as they were harmonizing with Michael Garner on keyboard. Their feel-good-catchy tunes were as light as Frankel’s subtle and delicate use of the drum machine (he was most of the time using his naked hands), an original trait, that could be their most distinctive signature.
Their voices were cute and lovely, as they were making all these ooo-oos and ba-doums, a sort of fresh air above the instruments which were very often in second plan; they even sang ‘I want you back’ (a song based on a true story, about 'being really in love with someone') with just the use of an acoustic guitar, a ukulele and their great voices.
They did their stripped down cover of MGMT’s ‘Kids’, it was the third song they were playing but it already fitted totally in their temperate rhythms and voices singing at unison: this is what they do a lot, even going into a sort of Crosby-Still-Nash style, but Fleet Foxes could come up to mind too, although the Danville trio was much more upbeat and poppy.
They wanted to find the right title for their song temporary called ‘Bed 42’, and I don’t know if they actually did, as the public, engaged in lots of hand-clapping and sing-alongs did not seem to care much for the title. They played a few of their calm, gently-brushed-by-Frankel’s-percussion tunes, like ‘Tired Magician’, ‘Frame and Mouldings’, Operating’, ‘Cars’, according to what I read on the selist.
There was not Lady Danville frontman, the three of them sharing the spotlight, and their good nature and nerdy-talent for well-crafted ballads made them sell out a show at the legendary Troubadour at the beginning of this year. They also opened for Ben Folds Five, Dashboard Confessional, and announced on Thursday they will be touring with Guster soon.
On one of their last song, they made the public participate, making guys and girls doing different harmonies, and they had absolutely no work to do to persuade everyone, the whole night sounded like a happy school reunion.