Pink Visions: The Big Pink Hits Denver
by Adam Perry for Westword
On “Crystal Visions,” the romantically heavy opener on their debut LP A Brief History of Love, London’s The Big Pink get crafty by adding huge distorted guitars worthy of Crazy Horse to the tried-and-true shoe-gazer blueprint of mixing one part Floyd, one part Bowie and one part Verve. However, from the band’s lyrics one can guess that songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell aren’t shying from another usual shoe-gazer tradition: “taking drugs to make music to take drugs to,” as the saying goes.
“On a sequin covered horse/they’re waiting for us to arrive,” they sing on “Crystal Visions,” “200 naked pure gold girls/and then I said I’ll watch them ride.” Elsewhere, the self-described electro-rock boys sings about golden pendulums and girls that “fall like dominos”; it’s just a shame there isn’t a movie version of these ecstasy-filled lyrics. For now, we’ll have to settle for the group’s mega-rock live performances, which feature a full (and LOUD) backing band and a seizure-inducing light show. The Big Pink plays the Larimer Lounge in Denver on Monday.
Adam Perry 