Feelies singer-guitarist Glenn Mercer

(HUDSON, N.Y., May 18, 2013) – The Feelies made it seem like 1977 all over again at Club Helsinki Hudson on Friday night, with their lo-fi-before-there-was-such-a-thing-as-lo-fi, twin-guitar indie-rock-before-their-was-such-a-thing-as-indie-rock approach that connected the dots between the power pop of the Beatles on the one hand and the arty new-wave of Talking Heads on the other.

It’s easy to underestimate the power of that twin-guitar attack, but it should never be underestimated. It’s one of the elements that gave the Beatles, after all, their unique sound, and in the hands of Feelies cofounders Glenn Mercer and Bill Million, who scattered single-note lines and riffs with lyrical eloquence, that approach is like listening to brilliant dialogue.  It helps that they also have a great ear for melodic hooks and bring an architect’s or mathematician’s sense of proportion to their arrangements.

If the Feelies were playwrights, they’d be David Mamet from that same era – all lean and minimalist and punchy, and downright giddy, as the band was on Saturday night, but more important, as the audience was, given the infectious appeal of the Feelies’ giddy power-pop-punk.