The Pipettes & The Bird and the Bee

I love it when I go see a cheap concert at a small venue, for a band that I don't know that much about, and it turns out to be thoroughly entertaining.

Last month, Tatertot told me about The Pipettes, performing at the Rickshaw Stop. So I got last-minute tickets for us, and it was one of the most fun shows I've seen in a long time. They are a British 3-Girl-band reminiscent of '60s Phil Spector girl bands, like the Ronnettes, complete with matching dresses and hand movements. You can check out this video to see how they are live... totally fun! I also love the cheeky lyrics.



I had seen their site and maybe subliminally, seeing their dotted dress outfits made me choose to wear a striped dress and red headband with white-skull-pattern. When I showed up at the show to meet our other friends, one of them ALSO wore a striped top and a red headband with white dots. It was like we were a competing Asian-girl version of the Pipettes.

Also, there were a couple of fanboys next to us, one of whom would holler funny things at the Pipettes, like "You're very attractive!" or "You're so pretty!" or "I love your bangs!" or my favorite: "You're so British!" And occasionally someone would just let out a gasp.

And the two opener bands were quite entertaining, especially the one called Smoosh, which is a very young indie-girl-band (kid-to-preteen age) from Seattle. It dawned on me that I had heard about them on tv previously, and so then I got excited about seeing them. They were really adorable and surprisingly very good. The drummer had braces and was rockin' out. And the youngest girl, was just about as big as the bass she was carrying.

Just now, I got home from seeing The Bird and the Bee at The Independent, which was absolutely fantastic! I saw the show recommended on the Flavorpill email list, and I remembered that they had opened for Lily Allen at the Fillmore, but I had missed it that time. Ernie was telling me how they are the one Electronica band on the Blue Note record label, which should tell you how unusual they sound.

The lead singer, Inara George, is like a beatnik version of Suzanne Vega with a jazzier, spacedelic sound. All their songs were consistently entertaining. She has a beautiful voice, and her two back-up dancers in matching babydoll dresses, knee-high socks, headbands, and gloves were so cute. The guitarist, drummer, and keyboardist were also in snazzy suits and ties. At one point they even played a glockenspiel, which BK quite enjoyed.

And for their encore, they performed a beautiful rendition of the Bee Gees' "How Deep is Your Love" and a fun cover of Burt Bacharach's "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" So go download the album and watch out for their next show!