Had a lovely finale to my birth month adventures at The Pains of Being Pure at Heart show in San Francisco this weekend. I've been a fan of their recordings for a while, but this was my first time seeing them perform live, and I was totally swoon by the good energy of their live performance and the band members.
For someone like me with nostalgia for the C86 era, Kip Berman's stage presence, energy, and obvious love for the era's music puts him up there in my list with icons like Jim Reid (esp Honey's Dead era), Robert Smith, and Joey Ramone... but with a sweeter energy like The Pastels' or a Bandwagonesque Teenage Fanclub.
Many bands mention Creation and Sarah Records as inspiration, but few live up to the reference as much as The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, who have knitted together a dreamy style of their own out of some of my favorite recycled sounds.
