TV on the Radio is currently touring with an enormous burden that most bands never have to (or get to) see. Their most recent release, Return to Cookie Mountain, was one of most critically acclaimed albums of 2006, and easily my favorite of the year and with that the band must step onto stage each night facing the stress of extreme expectations.
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TV on the Radio
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 Entertainment
 Art
The Metro
Chicago, Ill.
March 12, 2007
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Opening with “Dirtywhirl”, the bar seemed like it was set too high. Featuring some of the most discordant and awful vocal harmonies I’ve heard outside of a drunken karaoke duet, I didn’t know if I was watching the same band whose album I loved.
Despite this opening roughness, the band managed to recover. Surprisingly, the vocal shortcomings did not improve as the night progressed. Frontman Tunde Adebimpe and guitarist/vocalist Kyp Malone seldom reached the soulful wordless harmonies the album promised. Even more surprising was that this trademark feature of the band was not so sorely missed. Adebimpe’s charmisa and deeply earnest performance brought far more energy than one would think. His shuffling feet, hip thrusts, and emotional grimaces were nothing short of entertaining and powerful.
The dance-feel of some of the tracks off their first LP, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, carried wonderfully to the stage. The crowd bounced and boogied instead of settling for the boring head-bob sadly associated with a lot of other indie-rock crowds. Tracks such as “The Wrong Way” and “Wolf Like Me” were even more energetic live than their album counterparts. “Province,” a single off their newest album, managed the intangible power that thrusted TV on the Radio into the spotlight in the first place.
Unfortunately other aspects which made their albums so unique and important were missing from the live stage. Guitarist David Andrew Sitek, who was behind most of the production subtleties of their studio work, almost never touched his keyboards. Tracks like Return to Cookie Mountain’s opening, “I Was a Lover” lost all of its urgency without the synthesized horns and other keyboard sounds. “The Method” was stripped down to just some tambourines, drums, and “whistling” which sadly came off more like off-key blowing into the microphone.
I realize this sounds like I hated the show, but this is not at all the case. When expectations are high, shortcomings tend to stand out. TV on the Radio did put on an exciting and fun show, and I left with a smile on my face. I just had to accept that such a great and important album as "Return to Cookie Mountain" would make for merely a good show.
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