The first time I heard Viva Voce’s new album, Get Yr Blood Sucked Out, I thought to myself “this is cool, but how the hell do you reproduce it live with only two people?” Turns out that the answer is you don’t.

MP3: Viva Voce – From the Devil Himself

Whether it was Kevin Robinson tripling up his musical duties by playing guitar or keyboard while drumming and singing or the added help they got from an unnamed female guitarist/bassist, Viva Voce took every step to make sure their live performance was as fiery as their new album.

Quite possibly my favorite thing about watching Viva Voce perform was seeing Anita Robinson do The Stance. You know how Jack Black teaches the kids the power stance in School of Rock? Well it was somewhat like that. It was like taking a Syd Vicious-style punk rocker with all the swagger in the world in his hips, and sending him to charm school for a year. She stood with shoulders wide and head held high, though there was no mistaking the confidence in her posture.

In fact, she did everything right. Anita tore through the guitar crazies of “So Many Miles” and even did a pretty good job recreating the backwards guitar solo in “From the Devil Himself.”

MP3: Viva Voce – Special Thing

Curiously, I was completely wrong about what I thought my favorite song to hear live would be. I just knew that hearing “From the Devil Himself” would alone make the hour-plus drive worth it. But if anyone has seen them on this tour, you’ll have to agree that there’s no mistaking the true jaw-dropper of the set: “We Do Not Fuck Around.”

After doing an acoustic tease of it towards the beginning of the set, Viva Voce did a powerful three-person take on “We Do Not Fuck Around” that left me feeling as though David Bowie had just thrown the Arcade Fire through my head. It was beatutiful. So much so that the only other song that could close the set after it was a gentle rendition of “Special Thing.”