U.S. Girls at the Rickshaw Stop

by Roy Scopazzi

Whenever you wait in line outside of a concert long enough, you’ll get a person walking by who asks what’s going on and who’s performing. Me and the venue staff member answered that it was U.S. Girls and was then asked what kind of genre they are. Me and the staff member both went back and forth on the answer but landed on a mixture of Alt-Pop, Indie-rock and a smidge of Disco. This is vaguely correct, but watching the crowd while standing on one of the boxes on the sides of the Rickshaw Stop, a more nuanced descriptor came to mind.

U.S. Girls is “Vibe Disco”.

It’s the type of danceable music that demands a type of movement that isn’t large or audacious but low-key and calm. That is, perfect for a crowd that is packed in a small venue, and for a group of indie music fans around their mid 20s to 30s. Each song elicited small movements from the crowd as it undulated to songs off of their new album, Scratch It, along with a mixture of the whole catalog. It picked up with the last two songs as they transitioned smoothly from 4 American Dollars into M.A.H., but that largely had to do with her mentioning that it was the last chance to dance (The audience asked for an encore but she came on stage only to say that “My mom said there are no encores in life” and exited towards the merch table).

I read an article a few weeks ago about how the younger crowd doesn’t want to be seen dancing at shows as a sort of faux pas. That they could be caught on camera and be accused of being cringe or something or somewhat, despite if the music is up-tempo enough. This isn’t the case with this show, where everyone was just caught into a groove, mellowing out to incredibly well-written indie-pop, a perfect night for a guy like me.

Abracadabra led off the show with their own fun indie-pop, which both fit in with the vibe and was a skosh more funky than their headliner. Check them out too!