That one time when Architecture in Helsinki came before school work

Finals at N.C. State are coming up, and with them comes heaps of homework. This past Monday, Nov. 14, Nicole and I found ourselves in the best kind of dilemma. We both had a ridiculous night of homework ahead of us, but Dom and Architecture in Helsinki were performing at Cat’s Cradle! After weighing our success in school against our love of indie rock, we found middle ground. We justified a trip to Carrboro with hopes that the bands’ energy would help us to stay up for a late night of homework. We at WKNC are true problem solvers!

We arrived at Cat’s Cradle right in the middle of Dom’s set. The band resembled an Urban Outfitters catalog while playing the hazy pop tunes that we all fell in love with at the beginning of this year. Dom played a good portion of music from their first EP and ended with “Living In America,” by far their #1 single. The only thing lacking from Dom’s performance on Monday night was...well, energy. I wanted more excitement during “Living In America.” Instead, the band looked like they were bored and ready to get off stage. It was hard to tell through his thick mass of red hair, but it seemed Dom made eyes with us a few times. It wasn’t clear if this was intentional or if his head had just rolled to the side awkwardly, and that’s a problem. When they did leave the stage, we worried that this would be a theme of the rest of the night. Fantastic tunes, a great sound, but if I wanted those, I'd listen on iTunes. We couldn’t imagine Architecture in Helsinki being so boring. Thankfully, we were right.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/32237537[/vimeo]

Architecture in Helsinki hails from the distant land of Australia; they came to North Carolina in search of Cheerwine, which they nostalgically spoke of on stage. They complimented us on our warm November weather. The band walked onto the stage void of emotion, stood there, and then jumped into a high energy, fun series of songs that had the audience dancing and smiling at the stage. Seeing Architecture in Helsinki live reminded Nicole of what an ‘80s new wave style concert would have been like two decades ago: a mix of B-52s, Talking Heads, and energy. The members all had their own distinct dance moves that were used throughout the show. The one woman in the band, Kellie Sutherland, was one of Nicole’s favorites to watch throughout the show. She wore an amazing jumpsuit and just gave her all on stage, creating dance moves and driving the energy through the roof.

Two favorites for the night were the band’s newer single “Contact High” and of course “Heart It Races,” their last song of the encore. You know you’ve hooked an audience when you come out for an encore and they begin chanting for a specific song. “Like It Or Not” and “Do The Whirlwind” brought some crazy dance moves on the dance floor as well. Overall, the show was a fantastic break from homework and gave us a second wave of energy that lasted until we got back to campus and decided to call it a night.