By Jodi Root

Chicago’s Bottom Lounge pulsed with lively energy and super smooth dance vibes last evening as two MoB favorites, School of Seven Bells and Fujiya & Miyagi took the BL stage for the second time each in recent months. SVIIB kicked the show off around the 10:00 PM mark, busting forth several tracks from their psychedelic electro-pop debut album Alpinisms, including “Half Asleep,” “Prince of Peace,” “Connjur,” and “Chain” within their 8-song set.

While the sound quality and acoustics of their futuristic ambient style far exceeded my expectations based from their album (which is still excellent, btw, just saying their live sound was even more incredible), I was less impressed with the trio’s lack of stage presence. While the Deheza twins crooned and worked their respective instruments, the audience didn’t get much more than an Egyptian-like head bob or toe tap as far as any bodily movements from Alejandra or Claudia; whereas guitarist Benjamin Curtis (formerly of Secret Machines) def overcompensated with frantic like body jerking dance spasms. This would have been ok given that their performance alone exceeded 90% of any opening sets I’ve seen in the past year or two, but the awkward eye sex or whatever the hell was going on between Curtis and one of the Dehezas as they clumsily grinded guitars just made me feel flat out uncomfortable. Keep it for backstage, guys—focus on the music, not the sexual tension—let the audience keep afloat in your hypnotic soundtrack, please don’t distract us, let us float on in your psychedelic dream!

Eye sex aside, it was still a great opening set. One and a half thumbs up. But around 11:10, my fave boys from Brighton, U.K. came up to bat and took things up a notch. Rocking several numbers from their recent release, Lightbulbs, the super smooth quartet rocked the stage for a little over an hour, getting the masses to shake their asses on the dance floor (at least towards the back, anyway). Several favorites were represented from both Lightbulbs and 06’s Transparent Things starting with the bass thumping opener “Sore Thumb.” Also represented were “Transparent Things,” “Collarbone,” “Knickerbocker,” “Goosebumps,” “Dishwasher,” “Pussyfooting” and several others.

My personal highlight was the super fluid, dancy basstastic “Uh,” which not only got the audience pumped up, but all but hypnotized yours truly, tranced by the ultra schnazzy footwork and dance moves of bassist Matt Hainsby (he has truly fantastic white shoes, keep your eyes peeled for them). David (Miyagi) Best’s sexy come hither vocal style rasped and seduced the crowd with several signature tongue rolls, whisper like growls and exhales—and Steve (Fujiya) Lewis’s Nintendoesque synth work kept the kids on their toes while Lee Adams brought the overall sound of the electric rhythms together with his tight percussion work.

I cannot remember a show with better sound quality than last night at the Bottom Lounge—the combination of thumping bass, sultry vocals, guitar and key action was clear and concise as could be, whatever reverb and distortion that was accounted for was clearly meant on purpose. I checked out during the encore as soon as the first track “Pickpocket,” came to a conclusion.

Discuss: Did anyone else stick around to see what closed the show down? What were your thoughts on Fujiya & Miyagi’s set? School of Seven Bells? How did each band’s set hail in comparison to their respective earlier fall sets?

Myspace: School of Seven Bells
Myspace: Fujiya & Miyagi