Do Come A-Knockin' If the Submarines Are A-Rockin'

It's a lovely story and the lovely couple make lovely songs. They were together, they fell apart, they separately wrote songs about missing each other, then recording those songs made them realize they belonged together. Now two CDs into their career and marriage they record a tune that questions consumption and shills for Apple. It's a complicated world.

The good news is that the Submarines, for all their loveliness, opt to put so much oomph into their live shows it's hard to sometimes tell if they're doing a cut from one of their CDs, as we learned at SOhO last Thursday night (thanks, Club Mercy). It helps they have a drummer in J Stare who not only whacks away at his kit so energetically that you think he might have to chase it around the club, but, as one concert-goer suggested, he has Sideshow Bob hair. While drumming, the hair more than bobs, is far from a sideshow.

Not that Blake Hazard (supposedly a great-granddaughter of F. Scott Fitzgerald, so there's something to live up to), who sings most of the songs, isn't the real center of attraction. Possesor of the most precious overbite since Gina Gershon nibbled her lip in Jennifer Tilly's direction, Hazard was ever quick with a smile, even mid-song. Plus during between song chatter she was enchanted to learn that "huevos" can be slang for "balls," even after her muscial compadre John Dragonetti made the joke, "That puts huevos rancheros in a whole different light."

So yes, they can be light themselves, but charm can go a a long way when you're putting out max effort on delicious pop songs. (Think, maybe, Luna without the guitar solos.) In that song Apple ads made famous, "You, Me, and the Bourgeoisie," there's the repeated lines "We choose love/ We choose light," and they do choose light, but they really mean it. Non-ironists having a good time singing happy songs with sweet melodies. That they can convert a cynic like me to like them, they have to be really good. After all, too many performers seem to feel it's miserable agony that they have to be performing, have to reflect the inordinate and impersonal yet total and devotional love from fans. Have a goddam good time, you. Millions would do anything to have a stage-ecstatic moment like your many.

Here's a pretty good clip from the actual show (thanks mmMarco17, whoever you are):