After five minutes of watching the Grates performing live, it might occur to you that charming front woman Patience Hodgson might have been given a slightly misleading name. Shaking, bouncing and hopping onstage in an indigo blue flapper dress and sparkly leggings, she brings new meaning to the phrase “ball of energy,” catching some serious air all throughout a set at LA’s venerated Spaceland. Behind her, drummer Alana Skyring hunches intently over her kit, peering through her cymbals with wide, expectant eyes; at stage right, it’s guitarist John Patterson running the tight guitar lines that lend the proper force to Patience’s spectacular moves.



Their bright, minimalist sound is Yeah Yeah Yeahs on Prozac: angular, crunchy guitar, tom-happy percussion, and vocals that could make the most skeptical believe. But what really shines through the volume and the physicality remains, like most great things, obscenely simple: they all really mean it. They have a hell of a lot of fun doing what they do, and this joyous display makes it obvious why their live set has everyone talking.

Yet Alana insists that the hype machine has no business with the band. “We’ve been building slowly but surely, and that’s the way we feel comfortable doing it.We’re not a hype band, but we’ve been lucky inasmuch as we’ve had all the support that we need.”However modestly put, the story of the Grates does smack a bit of the fairy tale: born of three longtime friends in a Brisbane garage, the band was offered a coveted showcase spot at the indie-buzz-rific South by Southwest festival when the number of gigs they’d played hadn’t even hit two digits. Now, what Alana has offhandedly called “support” has landed them comfortably into the posh stables of both Interscope and Polydor.

Say what you want, but the Grates are a two-minute song away from making it in a really big way.