[Live Review] Hooray for Earth at the Paradise

Published Jun 15 2011, 03:18 PM by P. Nick Curran

We’ve been talking about Hooray for Earth a lot lately. Some might say obsessing. We’re just excited. We’ve watched them grow as a band for years. Now, with the release of True Loves, they are, as we say in the biz, blowing up.

On Monday, Michael compiled a hysterical list of lazy internet write-ups comparing Hooray for Earth to MGMT and to a lesser extent, Yaesayer. Yes, those bands also use synthesizers, I understand. But, like the whole Interpol/Joy Division thing of the early 2000s, the comparison is cosmetic, simple. So let’s leave it there. At Monday’s show at the Paradise opening for Architecture in Helsinki, Hooray for Earth proved, once again, that they are every bit as heavy as they once were in the days of their self-titled album and the Cellphone EP. After hearing their performance at the Phoenix’s SXSW show last March, I wrote:

“Momo EP and their forthcoming LP are an evolution more than a change. Hooray for Earth didn’t trade in their guitars for synths, they just discovered new ways to convey the same idea. And it works.”

And it still applies. Songs like “True Loves” and “Sails,” which on record are pristine, studio epics turn into swirling, sludgy odes to poppy shoegaze. “Surrounded by Your Friends” from last year’s Momo EP, which immediately followed a marriage proposal from guitarist Gary Benacquista to his girlfriend via on-stage projection screen, is overwhelming in it’s warm, fuzzy embrace.