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The Bird and the Bee
Artist: The Bird and the Bee
Hometown: Los Angeles
Venue: Opal Divine’s Freehouse, 1 a.m. Thursday
Pre-show buzz: A somewhat unlikely fit for the venerable Blue Note label, singer-bassist Inara George and multi-instrumentalist Greg Kurstin scored a left-field dance-club hit with the ironic ‘(Expletive) Boyfriend.’
High point: George’s voice sounds airy and light on recordings, but she’s an astute and supple vocalist, as well as a charismatic frontwoman who doesn’t let her natural glamour get in the way of a good laugh. On the surface, the songs have the unabashed sensuality of ’60s French pop, but Kurstin’s jazz training give the keyboards a sophisticated twist. In the arrangements, you can hear sly echoes of everything from Michel Legrand to Burt Bacharach to Van Dyke Parks to the Roches.
Low point: The band got a late start as it took a while to get the monitors adjusted properly. As George said, ‘SXSW is fun, but it’s a sound maze.’
Post-show buzz: The crowd probably would have been bigger at an earlier hour, but everybody seemed energized once the music started.
Afterthoughts: An intricate sound difficult to pull off live, but they did it, and were as much fun to watch as to hear.
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