Modern Architecture

Heard coming from the stage at Saturday's Architecture in Helsinki concert at the Paradise:
- luscious Australian accents
- a blaring rendition of 80’s new wave hit “Live It Up,” by Mental as Anything
- “Have you seen ‘Trapped in the Closet?’”
- Red Sox banter – predictable, yet earnest
- “You’re nicer than those New York people.”

The indie sextet hit all the right notes, clearly, and electrified the crowd on Saturday night by igniting a full-on dance party. Maybe it was synth-pop openers Lo-Fi-Fnk who warmed us to the idea, or the cold weather outside, but after 10 minutes, the girl to my right was whipping me ecstatically with her wild hair and limbs mid-dance, and I hardly cared. Architecture sang and shouted songs from their new album, “Places Like This,” skipping “Underwater,” a dreamy throwback to less urgent and funky times. The soft moment I hoped for never came, but I had no leftover energy to lament the loss of vintage tracks like “Souvenirs” or “Imaginary Ordinary.” The dance was unstoppable, except for one grave second when Gus Franklin literally blew part of his trombone across the stage. It was repaired immediately, just in time for another song.

For a rigorous dance experience of your own, keep watch in the next year for a work-out video courtesy of Architecture and YACHT, a one-man purveyor of electronic pop music.