Dresden Dolls light a spark at South by Southwest festival
Usually, out of the hundreds of bands that play the South by Southwest music convention in Austin, Texas, every year, one emerges victorious -- hit single, hit video in hand.
So far from this year's festival, that one band has been Franz Ferdinand, a Glasgow pop-rock quartet whose big splash at SXSW is being credited for the band's subsequent success.
And Boston's own two-piece cabaret-rock band the Dresden Dolls are catching up. Their showcase at South by Southwest was a madhouse -- people stood in line for hours solely based on good word-of-mouth.
"That's been the key to our success," says singer/pianist Amanda Palmer. "The Internet especially. With no label to speak of and no publicist or manager for a long time, we managed to garner a lot of fans through our website. That continues to be a huge way we're picking up fans, who are e-mailing their friends saying, `Go download their MP3s.' "
MTV2 -- which played the band's videos for "Girl Anachronism" and "Coin-Operated Boy" -- and a "Jimmy Kimmel Live" appearance have since helped elevate their profile, resulting in the band getting nominated for an MTVu Woodie Award in the Left-Field Category.
"Out of left field" could be the best way to describe the Dolls' music -- a fusion of goth, cabaret, and '80s pop that the band bangs out, theatrically, on piano and drums. Catchy hooks are strewn about its self-titled debut, but so are odes to Kurt Weill and Weimar-era cabaret.
"When I was growing up, I listened to a lot of Cyndi Lauper, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Stray Cats," Palmer says. "You can see the theme here: a lot of costumes and catchy pop music.
"But I was also in choir in church," she says. "I sang a lot of Haydn, Mozart, and a lot of typical church music. Then, I was in a lot of musicals as a kid. That whole world of music really drilled a certain kind of picture into my head. As I got older, I turned to more esoteric stuff -- the Cure, Legendary Pink Dots, then more experimental music, like John Cage. I was going totally off the map."
In live shows, the Dolls -- anchored by drummer Brian Viglione -- take their odd assortment of influences even further, adding elements of theater. Donning goth-costume-ball outfits, Palmer and Viglione act out some of the songs, echoing, in a way, how Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham would look at each other while singing "Go Your Own Way."
"Just imagine the record turned up to 10 -- with visuals," Palmer says. "The live show is about the communication that takes place between me and Brian -- it's a lot of intense looking, stopping and starting. It's a very visceral, passionate show. It's not for the weak-hearted. We sort of like to take the audience on an emotional musical journey."
Although it seems they just came out of the costume closet, the Dresden Dolls' journey began four years ago, when the two met at, not surprisingly, a Halloween party at which Palmer was performing solo.
Impressed by her Tori Amos-like delivery, Viglione hit her up to form a band that swirled around her visual theatrics and piano skills. There would be no bassist or guitarist, just the two of them.
They began performing in Boston's arts community, taking gigs at galleries and lofts. They soon lucked out, landing a weekly gig at a Boston bar.
"It was a tiny little lounge that we played every Wednesday for a month," Palmer says. "The first night, there were 40 people there. The next night, 70. The last time we played it, it was sold out. It was then that we knew it was going to work, that we had something special."
