Von Iva and Glasvegas at Bottom Lounge
"We left our guitars at home, along with our penises."
The Bottom Lounge had a severe case of the Opening Band Blues on Monday night, when dance-soul-punk lady trio Von Iva took the stage before headliners Glasvegas. By the time the openers arrived onstage an hour and a half after the posted show start time—a delay that was never explained—the freezing-cold room was almost full. Unfortunately, it was filled with an antsy audience who had had plenty of time to get a few drinks in them. An hour and a half’s worth of liquid courage inspired a healthy amount of razzing from a mostly male audience, who had clearly come for the hooky guitar pop of Glasvegas and not the glitter-laced girl-rock of Von Iva.
It’s a shame that vocalist Jillian Iva, drummer Lay Lay, and keyboardist Bex were greeted with such indifference, considering the amount of energy they poured into their performance. Hell, if anything, Iva’s legs, prominently on display between her micro-shorts and knee-high boots, should have inspired a little extra admiration. Though it was her voice (reminiscent of obvious inspiration Beth Ditto of Gossip) that really deserved the attention, especially during a spine-tingling a capella run during “No Man,” off of the group’s 2007 full-length, Our Own Island. Iva stalked the stage, hanging from speakers and twirling her microphone, at one point venturing into the mostly unresponsive audience to pluck the sunglasses off the face of a stoic teenager and put them on as she howled her way through “Do It.” Lay Lay put on her own show behind the kit, standing up to pound the toms like a tribal warrior during “Lala.”
To her credit, Iva handled the audience chill admirably. When a heckler mocked her for repeatedly mentioning that the band was from San Francisco, she played along, reiterating the same point after every subsequent song. She mostly ignored the shouted comments—very pointedly so after one guy shouted, “We didn’t come here for disco!”—though the audience was treated to a healthy dose of her middle finger throughout the night. Hopefully the next time Von Iva plays—in May at Schubas—it will be for an audience that anticipates their performance, not just tolerates it.
Alas, the audience clearly preferred the all-black ensembles and trio of guitars of Glasvegas to the hot pants and keyboards of Von Iva, and they didn’t have to wait long to get what they wanted. Compared to the sassy Iva, Glasvegas lead singer James Allen was practically mute, gracing the audience with his Scottish brogue only once or twice between songs. It was good-natured, but perfunctory. The band was obviously more concerned with ripping through the songs off its 2008 self-titled debut, which it did so with gusto. The audience, perhaps somewhat jaded by the show’s delay and the opening act, was responsive but not entirely enthralled; even the front row did little more than bob their heads and sway during energetic numbers like “Geraldine” and “Go Square Go.” The closest the crowd came to a frenzy was during the encore, particularly the set-closing “Daddy’s Gone.”
Despite the lackluster audience, both acts gave polished, energetic shows that bode well for the rest of their joint tour throughout April. If only they had gotten back more of the energy they put out into the crowd.
