Soft Hell Archives - TURN UP THE VOLUME

Saturday Sax Fever With New York City’s Swinging PILL Live In Belgium…

Posted on February 3, 2019 by JL

PILL – Charlatan, Ghent, Belgium – 2 February 2019

Jangly rockers Parquet Courts call PILL (yes, double ‘l’) one of the best live bands around. The New York City foursome released their critically praised sophomore album SOFT HELL, last October. As part of a short European tour, the band played Belgium twice in eight days. After Brussels last week they landed in my hometown Ghent yesterday night. They were the perfect combo to make us all forget that it was a bloody freezing rainy Saturday.

Party time indeed, with the group’s saxophonist Benjamin Jaffe heating up the vivid hullabaloo from start to finish. PILL produces a sultry melting pot of sax disco, sax
funk, sax post-punk, sax jazz and sax soul. Add frontwoman Veronica Torres‘s both
sensual and determined vocal and bass performance, vigorous drums and bouncy
guitar licks and I felt as if I was witnessing a sort of thrashy postmodern Sly And The
Family Stone concert, particularly during the second swinging half of the set. Their politically tinted songs deal with the daily shit related to the alarming times they experience in the Divided States Of America, which in extension affects the whole
wide world. But instead of getting hopelessly depressed this quartet decided to soundtrack their concern about the current humanitarian crisis while having some
fun and creating positive energy to face today’s anxious reality. It keeps hope alive.
And I can guarantee you that PILL‘s approach definitely works. Here’s an idea of their
lively and turbulent spirit…