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SXSW review: Miracle Fortress at Spill
It’s refreshing when indie dudes can dance and inspire their audiences to do the same. The self-seriousness of the genre is often so constraining that few people on stage or off can bring themselves to offer more than a few subtle head nods.
Not Graham Van Pelt of Miracle Fortress. As he proved on Friday night at Spill, his moves are minimal, but they’re enough to get crowd members grooving below the neckline.
But more surprising still is that this showcase, which consisted entirely of cuts from the band’s album due next month, was likely not what anyone familiar with Van Pelt’s music was expecting. Miracle Fortress’s 2007 debut was a surprisingly seamless blend of abundant “Pet Sounds” harmonies, jangly chord progressions, ambient soundscapes and sampled soundplay. This sounded like the Cars had a trance epiphany.
Van Pelt took the stage armed with a couple of Roland samplers, a synthesized drum pad, two Fender amps and a Stratocaster wired to a sizable pedal board. He also set up a few iridescent light projectors beside the amps and had the stage tech turn off all of the house lighting. His drummer only brought along a simple two-piece kit, but together they dipped and swirled through pulsing samples overlaid with thick, clean guitar and Van Pelt’s sugary sense of melody. Van Pelt would serve up a few smooth dance riffs, then loop them and add a new phrase to the mix or build up the rhythm with the drum pad.
Only near the end of the set when Van Pelt plucked out a dizzying arrangement of liquid-smooth lead lines did any trace of the former Miracle Fortress emerge. But it’s nothing to mourn - the world doesn’t need another Brian Wilson imitator, and Van Pelt is clearly capable of much more.
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