The Raveonettes

Oh, you crazy Danes. This band's sound is shaped by a set of self-imposed restrictions in the spirit of Dogme 95, the edicts dreamed up by Denmark's more eccentric film directors. The Raveonettes are less extreme in their masochism and their rules are simpler: three chords, three minutes, B-flat major. Add to this some vanilla rock'n'roll, a shoegazer's dense wall of sound and a substantial dose of the Jesus and Mary Chain and you've got a great thesis for a music production M.A., but not necessarily a listenable album. The Raveonettes rock in small doses, as on the anthemic "The Big Love Sound," but their mono-tonal, flaccid LPs, Whip It On and Chain Gang of Love, are nothing to get your head off the floor for. However, the uniformity of the tunes is no longer an issue when the sound is allowed to buzz, echo and soar through a concert hall. Founding Raveonettes Sune Rose Wagner (lead vocals, guitar) and Sharin Foo (bass, backing vocals), now backed by Manoj Ramdas (guitar) and Jakob Hoyer (drums), said very little, apart from a requisite Johnny Cash dedication and little comments like, "we have a lot of songs about love." Each time the crowd exploded into applause, which, with about 25 songs in the set, was often, the band would stand stock still, only tweaking their tuning pegs before blasting into the next track. In play, they weren't significantly more animated, but their sonic and nostalgic power was enough to thrill the big throng glued to the front of the floor, swaying and dancing and pumping their fists with every beat.