Nerd Night Out with The Doubleclicks

Every few years, I fall in love with a female vocal act. First it was Janis Joplin, whose brassy blues and childlike vulnerability on The Dick Cavett Show broke my thirteen-year-old heart. Then, over the decades, there came Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones, Jane Siberry, and Brittany Howard. My current crushes are Angela Webber and her sister, Aubrey  ― aka The Doubleclicks ― who stopped by Melodies Café in Ardmore Friday night on their Nerd Night Out Tour. (The joke is, it's a night out for people who never leave the house.)

Angela, left, and Aubrey Webber --
aka The Doubleclicks --
after their show Friday in Ardmore.

I caught The Doubleclicks live  for the first time almost exactly one year ago at the same venue. Their set last week was shorter, because shared the bill with singer-songwriter Molly Lewis, best known, perhaps, for wanting to bear Stephen Fry's child, and the nautically appellated standup comic Joseph Scrimshaw. It was a fun night ― made more so by the company of my first cousin once removed, whom I had not seen in a couple of years.

Angela insists Molly Lewis a genius, and it’s hard to argue. Her lyrics are devilishly clever, and she plays the ukulele as though it were a real instrument. If I had to compare the acts, however ― and this is a wholly superficial impression ― I’d say that while Molly has the sharper, bluer wit, the Doubleclicks have a greater expressive range, as well as more pleasing voices. “Wonder Woman,” which ended their solo set Friday before the finale, is a small miracle of sincerity that wrings a touching ballad from the silliest topic without a trace of camp. When I complimented Angela on the song, she said, “Well, we’re great.”

Darn. I thought she needed me to tell her that. 

Read my review of The Doublclicks' latest album, President Snakes.

Here is a highlight of Friday's show, a Mad Libs-style song composed of words shouted by the audience at random: