2969315119_1799e05cc0.jpgOver the course of its 15 year long oeuvre, the Notwist has radically changed its sound as many times as Joe the Undecided Plumber has decided for whom he shall cast his vote in the upcoming election. From the sloshy metal of their early days, to a more jazz-infused output in the late 90’s, to their current offering of electronically backed ‘laptop-pop’ (for which they are best known in the United States), not to mention the multitude of other projects the members have worked on (Lali Puna, Ms. John Soda, Console, and Tied and Tickled Trio, to name a few), the members of the Notwist had a wealth of influence to draw upon for their performance Thursday night at Neumos.

The band opened with the slow build of the track ‘Boneless’ off of their 2008 album The Devil, You + Me. Starting with an easy, toe-tapping melody, frontman Markus Acher’s soft vocals, barely above a whisper, led the way as the layers of sound beneath amplified to become a raucous guitar hammering session that worked its way to an eventual swell of noise. The next five songs followed in similar fashion, with the band alternating between songs off their 2002 hit Neon Golden and newer fare, all with a punched up tenacity that spoke to the bands early days in noise rock.

As the track ‘This Room’ came to full cacophony, the sound quickly dropped to a minimal click track with Acher’s slight voice asking the audience, “what are we going to do ’bout this?”, thus marking a turning point in the show. The guitars and synths began to fall behind the beat instead of muscling ahead of it, songs became constantly evolving jam sessions became songs again, and the group hit stride. ‘Neon Golden’, a track with the groups archetypal of late meandering guitar strumming with glitchy clicks and pops, played against a tribal rhythm dampened by mallets. In a particularly impressive procession, the tribal beat continued as Acher’s guitar became a loop of delayed strums, Martin Gretschmann’s Wii-mote controlled glitch noise became a glockenspiel infused synth line, and Micha Acher’s bass simplified into a 1-2 wobble that lent to a surprisingly dubby psych jam. By and by, the sound snapped back together and became ‘Pilot’, a fan favorite that is the groups bounciest track to date.

As the band left the stage with the lulling title track, ‘Devil, You + Me’, the group reconvened to produce rollicking versions of ‘Good Lies’ and ‘One With the Freaks’, as the audience became more and more vocal with its desire to hear what is arguably the groups sweetest song, ‘Consequence’. Returning to the stage for a second encore, the band obliged, dropping that telling bass and snap beat to back the harmonized guitars and synthesized pianos that prop up Acher’s most eloquent lyricism. Unable to follow the mantra of the song - ‘never leave me paralyzed, love, never leave me hypnotized’, the crowd stood in awe, softly singing along, totally engrossed with the musicianship on stage. Considering the group’s many sonic personalities, the show could have grossly disappointed some while leaving others squealing with delight. For this writer, the band was spot on in delivering a top-notch performance, ending up near the top of the list of favorite shows this year.