The Pipettes @ the Troubadour, 6.11.07

What a strange pairing of concerts for me: Sunday, I saw LCD Soundsystem, and yesterday I saw the Pipettes! Both groups were great in their own right, though, so I couldn't ask for more!

One of my concerns about seeing the Pipettes live was that, since they tend to not play any instruments on stage (they save that for a cute, v-neck sweater wearing backup band), they would just sing exactly what's on the album/EPs/singles and that would be that. While neither the girls nor the backup crew strayed from the studio material much, they were so energetic, so charismatic, and so ... *lovely* (a word the three couldn't stop saying!) that they completely made up for the lack of live experimentation and change.

I also expected them to dance in complete unison, and while they made a very good effort to do so, I think they buckled a little under the combination of playing for one of their first US crowds and the strength of their drinks.
But, in the end, they pulled through with the choreography and did quite a *lovely* job. Hey -- I've never seen the Troubadour crowd dance like they did for the Pipettes ... if that's not saying something ...

The set was a pretty good length ... around an hour, including the two encore songs. I could have sworn that I'd heard everything the Pipettes released, but after last night's show, I doubt that a bit more: at least 10 songs were new to my ear, but they only said one was actually "new." Hmm. Regardless, they played all the hits except for -- strangely -- "I Like A Boy In Uniform (School Uniform)." So they skipped one song. I could care less because man did they deliver the other 30 others fantastically! Check out the concert picture here!

And listen to some of those pitch-perfect live harmonies below!

the Pipettes - Dirty Mind (live)