Recap Gossip at Majestic Theatre

When Portland’s Gossip nabbed the stage at the Majestic Theatre on Saturday night, The A.V. Club found that the vibe was profoundly askew. People seemed—well—too excited. Not that Gossip’s impassioned and punchy blend of Sleater-Kinney and Aretha Franklin is undeserving by any measure. It’s just that most indie-rock bands that tour through Madison are lucky to get a few heads bobbing, let alone screams of enthusiasm. So what was there for Gossip that wasn't there for the semi-recent appearances of Clem Snide or Elf Power? An audience, strongly reinforced by the LGBT community, that seems to head out with a “go-big-or-go-home” mentality, judging by its reception of Gossip and openers Men. Amazingly, this ideology allows for having fun at rock shows.

The whole room lit up with screams as vocalist, outspoken feminist, and positive-body-image proponent Beth Ditto shimmied her way to the stage, belting out the opening lines of mod-rock thumper “Dimestore Diamond.” “Everybody knows the things she does to please / Low-cut sweaters with her skirts above her knees / She’s a dimestore diamond,” Ditto sang, as the turnout screamed rabidly. Between songs, a scratchy-voiced Ditto squeaked that she and the rest of the band “had nasty colds,” and that she “had waaay too much fun last night.” “I need y’all to help me out tonight, I need you to hit these high notes for me,” Ditto pleaded, only to have a fan shout something about her “boob sweat” moments later. “Boob sweat? That’s mine, I worked for that,” joked the singer. The audience had no trouble filling the gaps that Ditto struggled with, most notably in older tunes like the pulsing “Yr Mangled Heart” from 2005’s Standing In The Way Of Control and “Fire Sign” from 2003’s Movement.

Guitarist Brace Paine switched between laying down his distinctly jangled guitar work on songs like “8th Wonder” and playing keyboard and sampler for songs like the Depeche Mode-esque “Four Letter Word.” Meanwhile, drummer Hannah Blilie nailed infectious four-on-the-floor rhythms and tom-fueled go-go beats with ease, even clicking some cowbell on “Love Long Distance.”

Gossip wrapped up its set with a stunningly tight rendition of “Heavy Cross”—thanks in part to the addition of touring bass player Chris Sutton, who knotted into Blilie’s beats with ease—and walked offstage. The audience clapped, stomped, screamed, and howled until the sickly band came back out and ripped through a dirty take on Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got To Do With It” with Men frontwoman and Le Tigre member JD Samson on keys. Ditto and Samson danced all over the stage and, for a uniformly sick band, Gossip ended on a hell of a high note.