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Decibel Festival 2012: Last Minute Adjustments Pay Off

Posted by Nada Overlord October 5th, 2012 No Comments »

Decibel Festival
September 26-30
Seattle, Washington
By Jeff Wilson

Friday night at Decibel Festival started out with a hitch. Actress, my most anticipated act of the five day affair, cancelled last minute due to visa issues. This put a wrench in my whole night since I had been preparing to see the London based producer all week.

But the great thing about Decibel is that there are always new acts to discover. So I settled on Canadian-based Dragonette at the Showbox, who I knew little about.

When I arrived, the Knocks were just getting into the swing of their set. The duo, Ben “B-Roc” Ruttner and James “Jpatt” Patterson, were jamming out on at six different instruments between them. I got there just in time to see them play their hit “Make It Better” and a slough of other songs I couldn’t identify. Fun stuff though.

Having known very little about Dragonette, I was surprised and thoroughly impressed with their whole set. Martina Sorbara has a voice and range similar to Florence Welch (of Florence + The Machine), where she can hit the highest note and drop right into a low, bassy voice.

Dragonette’s rendition of Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” kicked off a slew of hand-raising songs before they dropped the bomb, “Hello,” the Martin Solveig produced dance hit. I had totally forgotten that Dragonette lended their vocals for this song. This reminder was my “cannot skip this group when they come back” moment.

Sobrana and bassist Dan Kurtz have been at this since 2005, so they have had time to work out the kinks and develop a great chemistry on stage. They continued the night with other hits such as “Live in This City,” “Let It Go,” and “Big in Japan” (another Solveig produced hit). I highly recommend these guys.