More rain. Miserable, cold rain, to be precise. Perhaps that’s one reason why Friday night’s show at The Fillmore was sold out. Or perhaps Beach House is just far more popular than I previously realized…

It’s not that a two-band bill at The Fillmore is anything uncommon, but for some reason I had it in my mind that the show’s draw would be on the average side. I was admittedly perplexed when, after viewing the “sold out” placard over the ticket window, I found the historic venue half full five minutes to showtime. Did the brass intentionally undersell? Where the hell was everybody? But as Papercuts came on just past 9 PM, I quickly realized that most of the audience was entirely unfamiliar with the opening group, despite their being San Francisco natives.

Led by vocalist/guitarist Jason Quever, Papercuts’ heavyhearted shoegaze has been in the dream-pop game for the better part of a decade. With three previous LPs released by Gnomonsong and Antennae Farm, Papercuts is now inked to Sub Pop and hot on the heels of the February 1st release Fading Parade. In the live setting, Quever’s penchant for penning uplifting, sometimes transcendent vocal melody, is buoyed by the crack musicianship of his four-piece backing band, most especially drummer Graham Hill, whose tasteful exactitude provides the backbone for a style of songwriting that is both subtle and capacious. To crowd the space with fills would be egregious, while laying out entirely would be a bore; Hill understands this, and ultimately sits as the tie that binds amid a breeze of auto harp, keys and pacific guitars. Their set Friday night, though brief (less than 30 minutes), was on point and hopefully resonant to newcomers, concluding with the first cut of Fading Parade, “Do You Really Wanna Know.”

Beach House walked out beneath the chandeliers shortly after 10 PM to shrieks of elation, while behind the band stood three large wooden orbs which served as reflectors of sorts for the array of lighting effects that would accompany the hour and a half set. Having never seen Beach House live, I had left open in my mind the possibility of the performance being a snooze fest, as to the placid and ethereal nature of their recordings. But to my pleasure this was not at all the case—Beach House was large. Victoria Legrand, sporting a lime green blazer below her brunette mane, had enough low-end emitting from her synth rig to match any bass stack and, moreover, drummer Daniel Franz’s presence was felt through and through. Songs like “Silver Soul” and “Norway,” both off the 2010 Sub Pop release Teen Dream, exploded with a moody force that would have made Mazzy Star proud. The crowd matched Beach House’s enthusiasm in a manner atypical of shoegazers; people were actually dancing, and by dancing we’re talking, big, heavy body movements, only possible when fixated by a powerful downtempo.

And though the latter portion of Beach House’s set dropped off in sheer clout, their Fillmore debut was absorbing; more than enough to convert a one-time skeptic.

MP3: Papercuts — “Do What You Will”

While rain came down in sideways sheets throughout San Francisco Wednesday night, a capacity crowd packed Bottom of the Hill for a display of reverb-drenched indie-pop fit to match the elements in soak factor, care of Dum Dum Girls, MINKS and Dirty Beaches.

Down from Vancouver, BC, Dirty Beaches, aka solo artist Alex Zhang Hungtai, opened the affair with his brand “minimalist rockabilly.” While the self-ascribed nomenclature may be hard to imagine, Dirty Beaches is definitively minimal, as Hungtai enlists only the powers of guitar, vocals, simplistic loops and effects to create a dissonant and distorted sheen of pompadour flair. In fact, Dirty Beaches’ level of dissonance is unbridled enough for possible relegation to Lester Bangs’ “Reasonable Guide to Horrible Noise”; which is to say that most of Hungtai’s lyrics are incomprehensible in the live setting, his rhythmic loops are murky dirges, and his guitarmanship implies he either a) can barely play, b) doesn’t give a damn, or c) a little bit of both. But this same roughshod quality is part of Dirty Beaches’ charm, as the music follows devil-may-care ambitions of free jazz while actually sounding something akin to “Ghost Rider” by Suicide. Look for Dirty Beaches’ full-length debut, Badlands, on Zoo Music come March 29th.

Next in line came MINKS, representing Captured Tracks out of Brooklyn. Their first trek to California, MINKS, six members in total, were able to shed the oft-common stereotype of snobbish Brooklyn hipsters via front man Shaun Kilfoyle’s ingenuous banter. MINKS sauntered through a semi-brief set of dreamy indie-pop not falling far from the Cure tree, chorus-laden tones and all. “Ophelia,” released as a 7-inch A-side, best showcased MINKS’ ability to drill bleak, yet whimsical melody, a quality matching the group’s sedate stage presence. (Vocalist Amalie Bruun stood, in black dress, stoically as a Norwegian totem, gazing hypnotically above the crowd with features sharp enough to cut glass.) Aside from a mid-set blowout of Dum Dum Girls’ back-lined bass cab, MINKS went off with few hitches, endearing yours truly enough to pick up the aforementioned 45.

Dum Dum Girls could have been little short of enthused by showtime, as the sold out crowd hadn’t wavered in the slightest. Members Dee Dee, Jules, Bambi and Sandy, each clad in black chic, found themselves in the seemingly new position of headlining a well-to-do tour, beckoning a lengthier set list. The Girls breezed through I Will Be, with particular elan coming on “Bhang Bhang, I’m A Burnout.” The only track of note left in the breeze was “Blank Girl,” which calls for vocal assistance from Brandon Welchez of Crocodiles. He Gets Me High, Dum Dum Girls’ forthcoming Sub Pop EP, was also well-represented, with the down-tempo melancholy splendor of “Take Care Of My Baby” dripping emotional longing like a tear-soaked hankie:

“I will telephone a love song/I’ll collect all of your stories/I haven’t seen you in so long
Do you wonder what I’m up to?/Do I ever cross your mind?”

After honoring their headliner duties and playing a hefty span of the Dum Dum catalog , the gang left stage to return with a one-song encore. But there’s a heck of a lot more where that came from, so long as you live in one of the following cities, be it here or abroad:

February 17 – Skybar (LA), West Hollywood CA
February 18 – Casbah, San Diego CA
February 21 – Hi-Dive, Denver CO
February 23 – Billiken Club, St Louis MO
February 24 – Empty Bottle, Chicago IL
February 25 – Magic Stick, Detroit MI
February 26 – El Mocambo Club, Toronto ON, Canada
February 27 – Il Motore, Montreal QC
March 1 – Club Metronome, Burlington VT
March 2 – Brighton Music Hall, Boston MA
March 3 – Glasslands, Brooklyn NY DJ set
March 4 – Bowery Ballroom, The, New York City NY
March 5 – Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia PA
March 6 – Black Cat, Washington DC
March 8 – Local 506, Chapel Hill NC
March 9 – Milestone Club, Charlotte NC 18 & Up!
March 10 – The Earl, Atlanta GA
March 11 – Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville FL
March 12 – The Social, Orlando FL
March 13 – Orpheum (FL), Tampa FL w/ Tennis & La Sera
March 31 Deaf Institute, Manchester United Kingdom
April 1 – Whelans, Dublin Ireland
April 2 – Black Box (UK), Belfast United Kingdom
April 3 – Stereo, Glasgow United Kingdom
April 4 – Brudenell Social, Leeds United Kingdom
April 5 – Dingwalls, London United Kingdom
April 6 – Komedia, Brighton United Kingdom
April 7 – Vooruit, Gent Belgium
April 8 – Vera, Groningen Netherlands
April 9 – Motel Mozaique, Rotterdam Netherlands
April 11 – FESTSAAL, Berlin Germany
April 12 – 59:1 , Munich Germany
April 13 – Crossing Border Festival (Antwerp), Antwerp Belgium
April 14 – Flex, Vienna Austria
April 15 – ISC Club, Bern Switzerland
April 16 – Rocking Chair, Vevey Switzerland
April 17 – Mascotte, Zurich Switzerland
April 19 – Menza pri koritu (SL), Lubijana Slovenia
April 20 – La Salumeria Della Musica, Milan Italy
April 21 – Lanificio Factory, Rome Italy
April 22 – Covo Club, Bologna Italy
April 23 – Cabaret Aleatoire, Marseilles France
April 24 – La Machine , Paris France