Chains of Love

Chains of Love walk the retro line perfectly. Playing a pepped-up take on '60s girl group R&B, the Vancouver sextet have enough of a punk aesthetic to keep them from falling into a nostalgia time warp. Starting their set ten minutes early, the rambunctious crew sped through tracks from their debut Strange Grey Days with ease, anchored by a thumping rhythm section and the bombastic vocals of singer Nathalia Pizarro that makes the Wall of Sound look like a chicken-wire fence. Chains of Love are a difficult band to dislike -- their enthusiasm was palpable throughout the set despite admitting to being generally haggard from SXSW. Pizarro and singer-guitarist Rebecca Marie Law Gray traded bawdy jokes on stage while the rest of the band laughed along. Their well-oiled and inspired live show is still a few steps ahead of their songwriting, but with the amount of momentum the band have generated in such a short amount of time, that should change very soon.