The Pipettes
Lee’s Palace
June 1st, 2007
By Amanda VanDenBrock
Photographed by Lucia Graca
I had heard of The Pipettes first during CMW back in March when I tried unsuccessfully to help a friend see their highly exclusive showcase at the Rivoli by sneaking him into the venue for an industry party happening earlier the same night. Smartly, the organizers cleared the place between events so he ended up missing out and catching up with me to discovering a fantastic Danish band called The Kissaway Trail.
The next week I was in Austin for the legendary SXSW music festival. The Pipettes must have played about seventeen times but, alas, the planets did not align in the proper way, and I was not at the proper BBQs to witness their show. Before May 28th I had not even heard a song but so much press was flying around about them I could stop one of them on the street if they walked by. I knew they were a throwback pop trio with a love of polka dots and choreographed dance moves paying tribute to the Spector days of The Ronettes and The Crystals but that was pretty much it.
I soon found out that is pretty much it.
Lee’s Palace was packed on the night of the show. I came in just in time to see the main attraction, missing what was apparently a jaw-dropping performance by Smoosh – a trio of sisters age 15, 13 and 11. Signed to Barsuk Records (home of Spoon and Mates of State), they have been touring for three years already! By all accounts they are not outstanding but certainly play way beyond their years. Then, after the required wait a quartet of skinny men in matching yellow sweater vests assumed their positions behind their respective instruments and after that you pretty much didn’t notice them again. The lads laid down a straight ahead bouncy beat and out trotted The Pipettes. They have been called “an experiment in manufactured pop” – a description that pretty much sums them up.
They are a classic trio, adopting the last name “Pipette.” There is an adorable brunette (Rosay), a knockout blonde (Gwenno) and a mousy one with glasses, also blonde (RiotBecki). Their outfits match enough to appear cohesive but are different enough to look individual, of course “knockout blonde” was wearing a tight short dress, “mousey” was wearing shorts and the “adorable brunette” wearing a fuller skirt, all white with large black polka dots and each with a dash of red somewhere in her outfit (a belt, shoes, bracelet). They bounced out in unison and immediately broke into an adorable song of innocent love complete with all the hand waving, finger snapping and hip swaying you would expect. Their moves were not perfectly in unison which was a good vehicle for giving each woman the impression of having her own personality, but also looked a little too loose at times. Each took turns with lead singing duties and Rosay even stepped behind the keyboards on a couple songs.
For all their charm though the ladies don’t really have strong voices, their harmonies were a little flat and only a few times did I feel they really rung true. Live, they don’t sound nearly as smooth as their record and after a few songs I found their dance moves didn’t really feel all that genuine, like they were going through a routine they had gone through a thousand times before (which I guess they really have). Audience participation is a great thing but having the crowd wag their fingers for “Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me” was sort of my breaking point. I wanted to stick around to see if there was at least a costume change for the encore but the songs had blended together to such a degree that I could not keep myself from wanting to leave. My cohorts had the same idea and we walked out about eight songs in. To quote the band themselves I had had “just about enough of sweet.”
