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Several hundred local fans invading Durham’s Carolina Theatre is an unusual sight. The venue is usually reserved for more austere affairs such as touring plays and orchestral events or performances by bands that are well established on a national level. In that vein, the most intriguing element of Friday’s Troika main show at the venue was how bands that are used to playing rowdy club shows reacted to the more reserved setting.
Chapel Hill post-punk act Bellafea used the sonic capabilities of the space to explore the nuances of its sound. I’ve never heard Heather McEntire’s voice resonate more clearly, and the melodic and rhythmic intricacies of the band’s bombast were also highlighted more than usual. The Old Ceremony seemed the most at home, playing with the confidence of a pop band that plays to large, already converted crowds on a regular basis. Olympia, Wash. twee singer Kimya Dawson, famed talent from the “Juno” soundtrack and one of few imports from the entire festival, used jokes and charming stories to turn the grandiose location seem more like an intimate coffee shop.
But in the end it was Raleigh’s Rosebuds who clearly owned the night. The band was polished and professional, and though they played in such a way that showed that they knew the rules of playing in a sit-down venue, in high rock ‘n’ roll fashion, they flounced them anyway, inviting members of the crowd to dance upon the closed off orchestra pit until venue personnel broke up the hullabaloo.
All in all, it was an irreverent and irresistibly entertaining cornerstone to what was shaping up to be one heck of a festival.
Bellafea
The Old Ceremony
Kimya Dawson
The Rosebuds
– Words and photos by Jordan Lawrence
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