Violator and The Go Station at Plaid, then Elkland at the Knitting Factory

I went to see Underbelly present Violator and The Go Station at Plaid last night. Really good show. Violator, an all girl Depeche Mode cover band (imagine that), were unbelievable. I could never imagine that live instrumentation and a non-Gahan vocalist could make Depeche Mode songs sound so good. My fave was "Personal Jesus." The Go Station were also great. Matt the guitarist is not afraid to break out a long guitar solo when necessary. Rachael, my cohort that evening, commented that Doug the vocalist sounded like Tim Booth from James. I can neither confirm nor deny that comparison.

Following The Go Station, Rachael and I quickly headed down to the Knitting Factory to see Elkland. Currently being hyped all over the place, they were much better live than I expected and sounded very Erasure-ish rather than New Order-ish as I was told. With his moves like Nick from Franz Ferdinand and arm-sways like Ian Curtis, Jon the vocalist looks like that kid from the private high school that you wanted to beat up. He did perform bravely, as he had a vicious sore throat. I'm looking forward to seeing them again. Check out their new Sony BMG sponsored web site!