You Can't Have a Two-Man Rock ‘n’ Roll Band -- Schwervon in Concert

There’s been two somewhat contradictory musical trends, both of which seem to be accelerating: the emergence of very large bands, like Broken Social Scene, Animal Collective, Arcade Fire and Los Campesinos!; and conversely, a proliferation of two-man bands like the White Stripes, the Black Keys, the French band La Chanson du Dimanche, and a band I had never heard of until seeing them live last night, Schwervon!.

The bands in the second group are all successful (musically, if not commercially) because they play off the dynamics of having only two members, instead of being limited by it. The White Stripes and the Black Keys both utilize their instrumental simplicity to create a primal, roots-rock feel. Especially with the White Stripes, by stripping away everything but the most minimum aspects of the music – a guitar, a drum kit, and vocals – they seem to reach us at almost instinctual level: listen to the riff that opens Hello Operator and try not to at least nod your head to the beat. I won’t pretend that this is what rock should sound like – even the White Stripes get tiresome after a while with their black-and-white (or should I say white-and-red) style – but this is the foundation of rock, everything else is just color, and even if it’s just on a reptile-brain level, this music is addicting and powerful.

La Chanson du Dimanche, on the other hand, use the minimalism as a part of their shtick, using pre-programmed cheap-keyboard drum beats instead of a drummer, and really, their songs are so simple I’m not really sure where a bass would fit in. Which is not to say their music isn’t good – funny, yes, but also melodic and well constructed. Still, I get the feeling that the two-man aspect is really to ensure that people don’t take them too seriously: they don’t even have a drummer, and you want to talk about whether their songwriting is incisive enough? (Actually, their songwriting is pretty incisive, but that’s a topic for another day.)

As for Schwervon!, they rely on the intimacy of the two-man band to create tight, catchy vocal harmonies, and to give them a bit more room to be pop-y without ever being at risk of losing their indie tag, because, really, at their heart these are 3-minute (or shorter) pop songs wrapped in a lo-fi indie production. But that’s not an insult -- it totally works, with strong melodies and deftly constructed back-and-forth vocals between the singers, and the band really sounds like no one else even if they’re not breaking much new ground musically per se. Part of that comes from the nature of their voices -- guitarist Matt Roth sings with a nasally countertenor that immediately brings to mind John Darnielle but also reminded me a bit of the whiny pop of (generally earlier) Chris Collingswood and the easy melody of John K. Samson; drummer Nan Turner for her part is a bit harder to place, probably more because there are just fewer female singers out there to compare her to, but if I had to I’d say she sort of sounds like Kim Deal from the Pixies – but it also has a lot to do with the fairly funny songwriting and the aforementioned tightness of the act, again owing to their nature as a two-piece.

Interestingly, the strongest moments of their set were when they launched into White Stripes style garage band riffs and powerful, simple drumbeats. In person, in a very confined space with a quality sound system, these songs were absolutely monstrous and when combined with the strong harmonies of the duo the effect was mesmerizing. By far my favorite moment of the show was in “Cut it Down,” which is built on a Hash Pipe style blues riff and about as simple of a drum beat as you can imagine. The song builds through two verses and choruses before everything suddenly drops out, and Turner belts out an eerie descending melody that is catchy, unique and utterly unforgettable. That right there was worth the price of admission (well, it was a free concert, but you know what I mean), and when combined with the cheery pop of “Dinner” and the Pixies-style weirdness of “Swamp Thing,” definitely left me feeling satisfied and saved the gig from ever feeling repetitive.

While neither band member is a future performing legend, they were both charismatic and fun to watch (and what can I say, I can watch cute girls play drums all night…). Listening to their MySpace the next day, it seems they selected their music well, picking the more exciting and expressive songs of their oeuvre, and there wasn't a single song that lowered the energy of the set. In fact, the only complaint I have is that the set felt short, but since they didn’t get started until about 11:00 (they were scheduled to begin at 10:00 but has a band ever in history begun a concert on time?) that may have been more a directive from the venue than a personal decision.

Schwervon! will continue touring France for a few before hitting Germany and much of the rest of Europe. Their set is certainly an enjoyable night out, so if they’re in your town and the gig isn’t prohibitively expensive I definitely recommending checking them out (and if you’re American make yourself known to them, they seemed delighted to find out there were some Iowans in the audience).