Tanlines

Ooh I have a Mariah Carey T-shirt, how ironic of me!

So I saw Tanlines, a duo from Brooklyn, at the Whitney Museum yesterday.
I heard their CD and even though I wasn't very impressed with it, I decided to see them live because it was a free show. They have a very specific sound - basically, if Peter Gabriel were asked to write a score for a high school prom scene in a John Hughes movie.
I don't mind when a band takes influences and somehow makes them their own, but Tanlines do their best to cop a style - '80s pseudo ethno dance pop - and plagiarize the fuck out of it. Some of the songs are catchy, but the sounds and grooves feel uber generic...and incredibly white.
I was hoping the performance would be a little more exciting as well. More and more often I am moved to yawn by bands whose whole sound relies on their laptop. In other words, you should be able to show up at a gig and rock a show, right? Well, if this guy's laptop malfunctioned for any reason, there would have been no show at all. Plus, it's just kinda boring to watch someone hit "play" on a sequencer. I left the show feeling like I didn't see or hear any creativity taking place, and for me, that's the reason why I go see live music as opposed to just throwing a record on the ol' turntable...