By Chris Zebo
Friday, March 26 at Revolution Café and Bar
Performers: The Ripe, Agent Ribbons, and The Hi-Tones
If you hadn’t looked at the sign before walking into Revolution last Friday night then you might have mistaken the place for a living museum of music history. All three groups on the roster were decked out in thrift store throwbacks for a show that featured new takes on the British invasion and early-American jazz burlesque.
All three hailed from Austin and two of them, The Ripe and Agent Ribbons, made their debut performances in Bryan. The Ripe opened the exhibition with a British invasion revival that resembled the Kinks’ power chords, punchy bass and minimalist drums (imagine “You Really Got Me“ but louder). One of the group’s singers looked as if he’d walked off the set of No Country for Old Men, a tall and ominous Javier Bardem doppelgänger (just switch out the compressed air gun for a guitar). All similarities vanished once he started singing like a high-pitched, nasal Noel Gallagher (sans the accent).
Agent Ribbons opened their set with a quirky chanson réaliste consisting of just voice, drums and theatrics (they were dressed like innocent dolls working a seedy Lower East Side burlesque). Their pared-down sound–a guitar, drums and a violin–is like a cross between early Broadway jazz singer Pat Suzuki (especially Suzuki’s “I Enjoy Being a Girl”), femme garage rock, vaudeville and sixties punk. Quite a mix, and unfortunately–because of sound and equipment issues–the group’s set suffered.
“The girl with the violin is cute up there on stage,” says Megan, an Aggie in the audience, “but you can’t hear much.”
The Hi-Tones rounded out the anachronism and dazzled the audience with yet another set plucked straight out of the British sixties. Crowd favorites the last time they played, the singer’s fancy footwork, the guitarist’s leaps through the air, and a solid, swinging set had the audience gyrating in and out of their seats.