Battles' Dave Konopka Talks About What to Expect From Their New, Improved Live Show

Michael Hoefner via Creative Commons

​

When Battles come back to Southern California to tour Gloss Drop next week, we're in for a tighter, more cohesive show than their Echoplex debut as a trio last May. Multi-instrumentalist Dave Konopka says of that show (their first since their sophomore set Gloss Drop was finished, actually), "I thought that show was good, but even when we were writing the album we weren't even considering how we were going to play these songs. We were more concerned about writing to the songs to the best of our abilities."

He adds, " When [the album] came out, we had to listen to them again and learn how to play them. We were still finding our bearings as a three-piece and playing live. I think we've gelled more as a three-piece and a band and the visuals have improved. So we're more excited to come out and be playing in the US now."

We have a full-length feature out on Thursday with Konopka; in the meantime, Mirrored fans can rejoice. Since member Tyondai Braxton left the band the remaining members of Battles seemed to have abandoned the songs of their debut. Konopka says that's not so anymore: "We played Mirrored so much, we were more excited about Gloss Drop. We've worked in some old songs since, since it's not really fair to leave them out entirely. You don't want to spend two hours boring the shit out of everybody."