Posts Tagged ‘music’
Posted by xneverwherex on August 28, 2011
Dramarama
Wyldlife
8/20/11
Bowery Electric
Dramarama makes for a good night out. Years later, they still make and bring back the best memories. Its hard to complain when they lead to the perfect unplanned date. Now, getting back to the music.
A bit older, but definitely not wearier, Dramarama rocked the club. John Easdale looks exactly the same (perhaps a bit less hair), but still comes out in his trademark sunglasses and cowboy hat. The band which seemingly seemed larger with lots more guitarists, sounded as great as I remembered them in the 90s. It was very awesome that one of the guitarists now has a LA Kings logo on the face of his guitar.
Their set included much of their older songs, and had the mostly older crowd rockin’ out. In prior years, that might have meant a crazy pit, but now people just appreciated it with lots of head bopping and dancing. Their set which never followed a setlist was all about what the band wanted to play. John noted that the prior night that he played very few songs that were written down, and this time he’d try to do better. He continued with his great dance moves and over-the-top choreography which also included a fall into the audience nearly toppling me over. He played it off and never missed a beat.
It was great to hear hits like “Stuck in Wonderamaland” and “Spare Change”. Like shows from the past, sure enough on “Spare Change” a few coins hit the stage. Their fans have definitely not changed. The night ended as John said his voice couldn’t handle much more. “Last Cigarette” had the crowd singing and dancing and cigarettes littered the stage. John picked one up and thankfully one of the guys in the audience gave him a light. The rockstar in him could _not_ be stopped!
It should be noted that instead of drinking a whole lot of alcohol, he drinks _a lot_ of Tab. A drink that some people didn’t even recognize, but it was a cola that was quite popular in the 80s.
The show ended with a 2-second reprieve saying ‘this is the encore.’ The RXP DJ, Rich Russo, who set up the show comes on stage to “introduce” ‘Anything Anything’. It couldnt have been a show without that song, considering the DJs show is called ‘Anything Anything’. And with that, the crowd and band gets the DJ to sing the song. It was pretty awesome when there was a short pause in the song and John tells everyone to start singing. Sure enough everyone starts singing along ‘When I was young I learned a game… I got wasted she got mad…’ No matter how long it had been, everyone still knew the words like any classic rock song!
Posted in Adventures in the Big City, Friends, Live Music, Random Ramblings | Tagged: 8/20/11, Bowery Electric, concert, Dramarama, glam, indie, John Easdale, live show, music, rock, Wyldlife | Leave a Comment »
Posted by xneverwherex on August 4, 2011
Fountains of Wayne
Nicole Atkins
8/3/11
Bowery Ballroom
Fountains of Wayne just might be the greatest power-pop band ever. Adam, Chris, Jody and Brian come (back) home bearing gifts of some of the most fun pop songs ever written. Theyre catchy, clever and Jody’s guitar drives those songs. The guitars on ‘Denise’ simply brilliant. Besides, these days its not too often that a guitarist has enough swaggart to pull out a cigarette and start smoking on stage while still playing and drinking. That is, until Adam comes by and then bam, no more cigarette.
While their lyrics may be beyond cheesy and simple, they no doubt stay with you and you find yourself singing them long after the show is finished. Its hard not to be smiling the entire show. The band undoubtedly is having as great a time as the crowd. Chris tells stories about Japan, a 36 hour trip (or maybe that was rest) and drunken nights in Japan. Whatever the story is, it always sounds like a good time.
FoW played a great mix of their music and included a handful of songs off their new album which definitely has a more country flair to it. But they never seem to lose their pop melodies that they succeed in. Most of their songs are accompanied by crowd sing-alongs or crowd members hand selected to join the band on percussions on ‘Hey Julie’. Its no doubt that the crowd (which skews to an older-ish crowd) is still yearning for their early music. Random people are heard to be yelling ‘Red Dragon Tattoo’, which sadly they did not play. But with their abundance of awesome songs, its hard to get everything you wanted played.
Of course, no Fountains of Wayne show would be complete without the hugely popular ‘Stacy’s Mom’ . Not appearing on the setlist, it showed up as an encore and had everyone dancing and singing along. And each time I hear ‘Radiation Vibe’ Im convinced it will never sound better. And last night might have been the coolest mix – as at the end they went into a Peter Frampton song, followed by Tears For Fears ‘Mad World’ and then one last 70s song. Of course the last song, was horribly botched with Adam forgetting the words and them kinda making them up. Regardless whatever they do, always seems to be fun and awesome. The medley was awesome especially as it segued back into ‘Radiation Vibe’. Few bands can pull it off, but when they do, it can work wonders.
Perhaps, following in the steps of Matthew Sweet, they will do a tour for Utopia Parkway. That would be quite awesome!
Supporting act: Nicole Atkins sounded as great as ever. She has amazing vocals and kept it simple with her and her friend Serena? who was accompanying her on bass. It was even just as nice when it was just Nicole and her acoustic guitar. I always forget how much I like her, shes chill and laid back and just goes with it. Ill make sure next time shes around, I check her out. Thankfully shes from around her, so that should not be a problem.
If youve yet to see FoW, you really should. It can make any day that much better. Besides, they might just have some of the coolest fans ever.
Setlist:
Little Red Light
Valley of Malls
Summer Place
Someone to Love
Barbara H
Richie and Ruben
A Road Song
Valley Winter Song
Fire in the Canyon
Hey Julie
A Dip in the Ocean
Denise
Mexican Wine
Radiation Vibe (medley: Peter Frampton ‘Do You Feel Like We Do’, Tears for Fears ‘Mad World’, Blue Oyster Cult ‘Burnin’ For You’ )
Encore:
Stacy’s Mom
I-95
Cemetery Guns
Joe Rey
Sink
(encore might be off)
Posted in Adventures in the Big City, Live Music, Random Ramblings | Tagged: 8/3/11, Adam Schlesinger, band, Bowery Ballroom, Brian Young, Chris Collingwood, Fountains of Wayne, indie, Jody Porter, live, music, Nicole Atkins, NYC, power-pop, Radiation Vibe, Stacys Mom | Leave a Comment »
Posted by xneverwherex on July 18, 2011
Superchunk
Off!
House of Vans (Brooklyn)
July 14, 2011
Well it was nice to be seeing tweets not too long before Superchunk came on to let people know space was still available and to come on down. I showed up pretty late to the warehouse now known as House of Vans. They have a taco truck out back along with free beer and free water. And of course, music, all for free! Its a win/win any way you look at it.
I came in and caught the last few songs of Off! I had no clue who they were aside for the fact that it was _very_ loud and pretty crazy. Later did I come to learn theyre some hardcore punk bank with the former singer of The Circle Jerks/Black Flag (Keith Morris).
Thankfully not long after Superchunk would be hitting the stage. As always it was an awesome show. Bring back the 90s with lots of pogo-ing, hands in the air, some pushing/shoving and an all around great time. It was great to see a good mix of people from the older(ish) fans to the much younger fans with everyone singing along to “My Gap Feels Weird”.
There were some annoying kids (who clearly dont go to concerts) that continued to scream out the same song every 5 seconds and after every song. Some girl finally turned around to tell them to ‘shut up’ and the song they were yelling was on the setlist. That was great for all of 5 seconds till they decided to yell at another song.
It was a really great mix of songs and it seems they were trying to play some songs off of every album. They noted that a fan complained about them not playing songs off their 2nd album, so of course they included it this time. As always, their music is super catchy. Lots of people singing along. The bands always seems to be having a great time, bouncing around on the stage, interacting with each other and the crowd. And it was rather funny to see Jack putting a band-aid on Macs forehead at the beginning of the show! Those pesky cuts from guitars or some such thing. And Laura is as awesome as ever jumping around and singing and having a great time.
The encore was really great with the aforementioned Keith Morris joining Superchunk and playing a Misfits and Black Flag song. The warehouse turned into complete chaos at that moment and Im glad I was far enough off to the side.
Setlist:
Slack Motherfucker
Digging for Something
My Gap Feels Weird
Animated Airplanes Over Germany
Skip Steps 1 & 3
Sunshine State
Rosemarie
New Low
Sick to Move
Crossed Wires
Martinis on the Roof
Driveway to Driveway
Detroit Has a Skyline
Throwing Things
Encore:
Cursed Mirror
Learned to Surf
Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie (Black Flag cover with Keith Morris)
Where Eagles Dare (Misfits cover with Keith Morris)
Hyper Enough
Posted in Adventures in the Big City, Live Music, Random Ramblings | Tagged: 7/14/11, Brooklyn, Chapel Hill, concert, covers, free, Greenpoint, House of Vans, indie, Keith Morris, live, Misfits, music, NC, Off!, Superchunk | Leave a Comment »
Posted by xneverwherex on June 29, 2011
The Kooks
Smoke Signals
Bowery Ballroom
June 27, 2011
The Kooks finally made it back to this side of the pond after what seemed like a long hiatus. They have a new album coming out in September – Junk of the Heart. From what they played live of their newer stuff, it sounds like it has a lot of promise. Its easily similar to their earlier works and equally poppy.
Luke Pritchard is always quite the front-man. A bit quiet, with guitar in hand, a red tight vneck with tight jeans; he looks every part the rock star. He never has too much to say but it really doesnt matter. The crowd loves him regardless. Anytime he approaches the edge of the stage, people want to pull him to them. Its alike for men and women.
By the time I got there, a bit after the said doortimes, the floor was already half packed. I was quite surprised, but managed to work my way to the front and side. Aside from some pushy guy, who asked way too many questions, the show was good.
I was a bit surprised that the set length is still just a bit over an hour. It hasnt increased much in time even with more songs. Luke did promise to play the favorites and he delivered. A lot of the crowd up front, were singing along to every single song, as Luke pointed out. ‘Do you wanna make love to me?’ was great and had the crowd dancing. He joked about the crowd knowing some of the songs as he broke out into ‘Naive’ and it was a sing-along.
The encore was quite great as Luke came out on his own and did a stripped down version of ‘Seaside’. Im pretty sure this is standard now, as I could have sworn I had seen it before. Either way, still sounds great. The Kooks early stuff still sounds great and its hard to want to hear new stuff when its just as satisfying to hear all of their early music.
Opener Smoke Signals was pretty bad. I was surprised that so many people were so into them. Had a country-ish vibe to them with a pop sensibility. They played for nearly 45 minutes and it was (seemed to be) the longest 45 minutes ever. Wish they had rapped it up sooner and given the Kooks more time. No clue if they might have played longer, but one can hope.
Set List:
Always Where I Need To Be
Eddie’s Gun
See The World
Carried Away
Ooh La
She Moves In Her Own Way
Junk Of The Heart
Is It Me
Do You Wanna
Naive
Saboteur
Eskimo Kiss
Shine On
Stormy Weather
Encore:
Seaside
How D’Ya Like That
Sofa Song
Posted in Adventures in the Big City, Friends, Live Music, Random Ramblings | Tagged: 6/27/11, Bowery Ballroom, britpop, concert, East Sussex, indie, live, Luke Pritchard, music, NYC, The Kooks, UK | Leave a Comment »
Posted by xneverwherex on June 21, 2011
Beirut
Sharon Van Etten
Yellow Ostrich
McCarren Park
6/17/11
What could have turned into a miserable evening, with a huge rainstorm that dampened us all, turned out to be one of the most lovely evenings in Brooklyn. To get it out of the way – yes there was a double rainbow. My friends had been looking for rainbows after the storm had passed and soon enough theyre screaming ‘OH MY GOD. Its.A.Double.Rainbow. Film.It!’ No, there was no way in hell we were recreating that video. But, yes, there was indeed a double rainbow and lots of rain!
Beirut (Zach Condon and Co.) played an amazing set. Not playing with a full orchestra (oh how I miss your church shows), he did have 4-5 other guys playing with him doing double duty on the instruments. Playing in the outside, facing the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, their sounds filled the nighttime air. People living nearby came out to listen to the show from their roofdecks. Their new songs sound so beautiful, that I had forgotten how much I had loved their music.
People were in good spirits, but I was surprised that more people werent dancing at all. A lot of people just stood with their arms crossed looking bored out of their minds. The setlist contained many of their staples with “Postcards From Italy,” “Sunday Smile”, “Elephant Gun,” “Nantes,” “Scenic World,” and “Mount Wroclai”. Their indie/gypsy/balkan/romanian sound makes for a good change from the many same-sounding bands in Brooklyn. The horns are always such a great addition for most bands. They played for about an hour and 15 minutes and had an encore with just Zach Condon playing “The Escape” which he noted he hadnt played in a very long time. It was a beautiful way to end the night.
Sharon Van Etten was an incredible opener. I had only known her by name, but a friend had told me her voice is amazing. That cant even possibly describe her strong vocal performance. She hurried her way through a set which seemed like it was over way too soon. She thanked her Dad (it was Fathers Day that Sunday) for coming all the way out from New Jersey. And along the way thanked her other family members for coming out to support her. Towards the end of her set she brought out Ben Lanz and Aaron Dessner of The National. He is producing her latest album and he added some guitar to her songs.
Yellow Ostrich started out the show and I must have had them confused with another similar sounding band name. I was pretty sure it was just one person, but turns out it was a full band. They were really good and had some really catchy songs. They seemed excited to be playing towards a bigger audience.
It was a great combination of bands. All of them were really good and it was definitely a show where you would not want to have missed any of them. I will definitely be checking out Sharon Van Etten again soon. Ive seen her name all over the place, but after hearing that, she is fully worthy of the hype.
Posted in Adventures in the Big City, Blogroll, Friends, Live Music, Random Ramblings | Tagged: 6/17/11, Aaron Dessner, balkan, beirut, Brooklyn, concert, double rainbow, gypsy, indie, live, McCarren Park, music, Sharon Van Etten, The National, Yellow Ostrich, Zach Condon | Leave a Comment »
Posted by xneverwherex on May 24, 2011
White Lies
School of Seven Bells
Sun Airway
May 19, 2011
Terminal 5
White Lies, hailing from London, finally made it back to this side of the pond and couldnt have been more excited. I hadnt seen the band in a couple years and I wasnt sure how it would be in a big club. But the times are a-changing and more importantly so is lead singer Harry. Trading in his dark clothes and gold nikes – hes now donning a suit. I might have thought for an instant they were going down the Interpol lane, but that is definitely not the case. Harry was more talkative than I had ever seen him before. I think he spoke more in 5 minutes than he had in any other prior show. He was happy to back in New York, one of his favorite cities ever. He was glad that more people showed up than he had anticipated – he wanted us to sing along, clap along, make more noise. It didnt stop. And the smile was HUGE! I guess success has hit him big time.
The band has now added yet another band member to tour with. They were always noted as a 3-piece band, yet from the moment I saw them on their first trip to the States, there was always 4. At this point, they have added another guitarist/keyboardist/singer. The guy is quite talented and seems to be doing it all. Jack seemed farther back and I really missed all the interactions that used to go on between the band and him. But Jack was still as awesome as ever and still looking ever-so-cool. Charlie’s bass lines still sound as great as ever – and loving him singing backup on what felt like more songs.
The band opened up with ‘A Place To Hide’ and its a great opener. The bass lines are instantly recognizable and it had the crowd singing along in no time. The crowd was loving every minute of every song. Guys were going crazy – and I would have thought it was the second coming of Jesus err The Beatles. Everyone wanted to be up close and was pushing – which is expected of the girls – but was more surprising with the guys. They followed it up with ‘Holy Ghost’ off of the new album. And then they went back into the older songs with ‘To Lose My Life’ which everyone knew and had Harry happy that we were all singing along. Was pleasantly surprised that right after that ‘EST’ would still be played. One of my favorite songs.
This was an excellent show. The band sounded awesome but its hard to get used to this new happy version of White Lies. Their music and lyrics definitely feels like a much darker band – but apparently they might be going to a happier version of themselves.
New York’s own School of Seven Bells were nice to have around. It was interesting to see them as a 2-piece. I definitely missed having the other sister there who left the band in October due to personal reasons. It seems their music isnt quite as interesting as it was, but regardless they still sounded great. They still had the same dark sound and vocals that arent that easy to understand, but that doesnt matter. Its this beautiful sound and it makes you just want to close your eyes and enjoy it and feel it. There wasnt much interaction – but a band who zipped through a 30 minute set trying to play as much as they could.
Sun Airway – one of my favorite new bands – from Philadephia benefited from playing such a huge venue. The soaring vocals were perfect in Terminal 5. Their songs sounded even bigger and darker and the guitars were sounding even fuzzier. A perfect shoegaze band complete with images shown on a white curtain behind them. It felt like they could have just kept playing and playing, but soon their 30 minutes were up too.
Definitely a show not to have missed – I was just happy that I managed to win tix to it and was able to appreciate it, not just once, but twice!
White Lies Setlist:
A Place To Hide
Holy Ghost
To Lose My Life
E.S.T.
Is Love
Price of Love
Streetlights
Farewell to the Fairground
Peace & Quiet
Bad Love
Death
Encore:
Unfinished Business
Power & Glory
Bigger Than Us
Posted in Adventures in the Big City, Live Music, Random Ramblings | Tagged: "School of Seven Bells", "White Lies", britpop, concert, Hells Kitchen, indie, live, London, music, NYC, Philadephia, psychedelic, shoegaze, Sun Airway, Terminal 5, UK | Leave a Comment »
Posted by xneverwherex on May 6, 2011
Plan B
Faith SFX (beatboxer)
DJs
@ Music Hall of Williamsburg
5/5/11
I went into this show knowing two things – a) Plan B is/was a rapper and b) end credits (w/Chase & Status). So I wasn’t sure much about his new concept album – The Defamation of Strickland Banks. I knew it was a departure from the rap side of things but didnt realize it was a whole story on some artist getting thrown into jail for a rape he didnt commit. The story is insane and as he gets thrown into jail and writes about hell and whats going on- the music really stands out.
The evening began with bass pouring out of the doors and it turns out a DJ was spinning to an empty crowd. Finally a crowd exists but 90 minutes later no one cared. We were all ready for the evening to _really_ begin. First came the beatboxer who was sick! Based on videos Id take a guess that it was Faith SFX who can pretty much imitate any sound and was great at getting the crowd revved up.
Finally Ben Drew (Plan B) comes out with a 7 piece band backing him. Everyone looks incredibly stylish with the men in 3 piece suits and shiny shoes. Women in all black standing on the side giving the music a gospel feel. The band is excited. Its one of their few solo shows, as theyre currently on tour opening for Adele. Plan B jumps right in with the album. They open up with ‘The Writings on the Wall’ and the crowd starts dancing. A couple behind me starts doing their own dance to the music. Plan B’s soulful voice takes you away as he sounds as great as any other 70s soul artist.
The band gets really into the music. A guitarist on stage right comes to the edge of the stage and is dancing as hes playing. The other guitarist on the other side of Plan B – with dark shades – starts dancing as much and they both bring out the great rhythms in the songs. ‘Welcome 2 Hell’ and ‘The Recluse’ are much more energetic and people all around are singing along to all the songs. He breaks out into raps during the songs and it works seamlessly.
About an hour later theyre saying how its the end of the show. Its hard to believe they flew through just one album. They come back out for an encore that is pure medleys. Full of dubstep beats and mixing up a bunch of oldies. The arrangements are awesome and theyve turned ‘My Girl’ into a brand new song. How ‘A Kiss From a Rose’ ever ended up that popular always boggles my mind. But that was another remix complete with a crowd sing-along. As Faith SFX comes back out to infuse beatbox into the songs it gets rowdy on stage. Somehow it turns into punk on stage and the band is creating their own circle pushing into each other which of course leads the crowd to follow suit. By the end of the show – the band is on the floor of the stage, instruments thrown everywhere and people on top of each other.
If youre seeing Adele – you owe it to yourself to check out Plan B. Im not sure any other artist could blend the rap into soul songs that seamlessly. The band is awesome and is thoroughly having a great time. Hopefully theyll be back here sometime soon as Ill definitely be seeing them again.
Setlist:
Writings on the Wall
Free
Welcome 2 Hell
The Recluse
Love Goes Down
Coming Up Easy
Hard Times/Runaway
Praying
What You Gonna Do
She Said
Encore:
Who’s Loving You. Tracks of My Tears/Lean on Me/ My Girl/Stand By Me (an awesome video from another show)
Dubstep Medly: Kiss From a Rose/Forgot about Dre (B)
Pieces
Stay Too Long
Posted in Adventures in the Big City, Live Music, Random Ramblings | Tagged: 5/5/11, beatbox, Ben Drew, Brooklyn, concept album, concert, Faith SFX, live, music, Music Hall of Williamsburg, NYC, Plan B, rapper, soul, Williamsburg | Leave a Comment »
Posted by xneverwherex on April 19, 2011
The Pinker Tones
Highline Ballroom
April 17, 2011
Its always quite odd when you show up at a venue – about 15 minutes before the band comes on and NO ONE is there. Ok – there were a few people (friends of the band?) there eating/drinking, but really – that was it. 9pm rolls around and the band isnt coming on. A friend inquires and learns that within 15 minutes – people or none – the band is going on.
Sure enough 15 minutes later The Pinker Tones come out. It seems theyre a band that either no one knows of – or they had a serious lack of promotion. Ill go with a bit of both. Sunday nights are a hard sell and the Highline isnt quite ideal if you dont live on the west side. With all that being said – the band put on a fun show. Maybe 100 people max showed up but everyone seemed to be having a great time. The band dedicated a song to the Land of the Rising Sun – and then made sure to tell us it was Japan. So naturally it meant they were playing the beyond catchy “Tokyo”.
The band did play as if it were a full venue. They were energetic and came out with sunglasses and similar outfits, black pants/white shirts. They did a combination of speaking in Spanish and English. I was surprised that they did so many English-speaking songs when a good chunk of their music is in Spanish. After all – they are from Barcelona its to be expected. They even did a song and broke up the small crowd alternating the bops or whatever we were yelling out. At best it was pathetic but hopefully we could all laugh about it. They played some of their earlier songs off their first album but focused mostly on Modular. Estirado al Sol and Invisible are quite catchy. A lot of the songs became sing alongs. Its just a pity that their music is somewhere between 80s synth pop/dancey and then they just have other songs that are not even in the same vein. So the question is – who are they?
The band ended with a small dance party and started mixing up their own songs. Throwing in some 70s songs and it was fun. The most amusing part was the song/dance that could have been the macarena. Between the pointing to the head, the world and I forgot the rest of what we did I felt like a total kid again.
The band tried their best to be in good spirits. They cut their encore short which was pretty amazing that they even bothered with one. Its gotta be frustrating to come over from Europe to have a nearly empty club. But they came out and played a good show. I was glad that I saw them – Im sure they needed all the support they could get!
Posted in Adventures in the Big City, Friends, Live Music | Tagged: 4/17/11, Barcelona, concert, dance, Highline Ballroom, indie, live, Meatpacking District, music, NYC, pop, synth, The Pinker Tones | Leave a Comment »
Posted by xneverwherex on March 19, 2011
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Kurt Wagner
Church of St. Paul The Apostle
3/17/11
Words are indescribable for this concert. It might have been one of the best shows Ive ever seen. In a darkened church with several candlelights overhead and just a stream of projections that had minimal images – it was just us and a band. A band that you could barely make out – but the sound was overpowering. It echoed off the walls – the acoustics are amazing in there!
And with that – here is what I wrote during the show. I have no clue what song was what – and if these were distinct different songs – but here were my thoughts (solely based on imagery and the music).
1 – Hope Hopelessness Despair war desert dry sad
2 – happiness flowers hope hopefulness uplifting sky crescendo
3 – cat animal nature dark moonlight peace ocean road tree wind gray cold water nowhere heavy thunder rain bird warning leave get out impending doom
4 – the anatomy of melancholy solemn tired weary forward new life future awakening rebirth alive crawling screams falling disaster
5 – strength up pushing escape running faster locomotive tracks end racing too fast taut black death fear agony ‘why dont you just fucking kill me’
6 – exodus leaving odyssey ‘weve arrived’ new trip oceanliner titanic massive lonely seas ‘not going to make it’ calm solemn ‘at peace’ hope a rescue ‘save us’ ‘so close’
7 – beauty desert longing burning eternal engulfing sucking air ‘no breath’ finality overpowering
8 – bombers overhead chills destruction emptiness gone
9 – ‘a slow wakeup’ red haunting homeless decay apocalypse ‘there but not here’ media 2.4 hrs ‘Wall Street’ ‘fall of economy’ clashes anarchy ‘fall of society’
Setlist:
hope drone
gathering storm
monheim
albanian
moya
09-15-00 outro
chart #3
world police and friendly fire
the cowboy
the sad mafioso
Posted in Adventures in the Big City, Friends, Live Music | Tagged: 3/17/11, Canada, Church of St. Paul the Apostle, concert, Godspeed, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, GY!BE, Kurt Wagner, live show, music, NYC, UWS | Leave a Comment »
Posted by xneverwherex on February 14, 2011
2/13/11
Wild Nothing
Abe Vigoda
Minks
Bowery Ballroom
Bowery Ballroom was a crowded hot mess last night. Once Abe Vigoda finished (how did people decide not to check them out?), a huge crowd of model-types storm the front of the stage. They push and shove like they’ve been there all night, angling to get to the front middle of the stage. Its rough and the room gets hot instantaneously. About this time, I decide I have to get some water so I dont pass out. Being short in a room full of tall people, as they suck the air out is a nightmare.
As I angle my way back to my spot in the front, I get people yelling at me about its not fair that Im there. Yes, they just showed up and would have known I had been there for every band that night. But I digress, lets talk about Wild Nothing.
For one thing, I try and never miss Wild Nothing when they play. Its always a great time for shoe-gazey dance pop. Jack Tatum doesn’t have much to say but does comment on the crowd being so silent that its creepy for him. He works through his songs with his hazy vocals on most songs with the beautiful guitars accompanying him. The crowd seems to love the music and everyone dances along in unison. Favorites like “Chinatown” and “Live in Dreams” gets lots of cheers. The crowd truly adores them. The show is all going smoothly until the guy next to me starts to rock back and forth with his eyes closed. Two seconds later and he’s fallen backwards and is passed out. A huge crowd forms, security is nowhere to be found and the band is shocked. No one quite knows what to do – Jack tenatively continues the song only to comment after he finishes ‘I hope he’s ok’ and then adds a quip of how he hopes his music didnt make him pass out.
It was a great set. Their Primal Scream cover was pretty awesome even thought it was one of the shortest songs of the night. Its a shame Cloudbusting hasnt made an appearance in quite some time. Kate Bush would be proud. Then again, so would Primal Scream.
Abe Vigoda (not to be confused with the actor) played a great set before them. Hailing from LA, these boys have surfer/skater hair cuts and sound like California guys. “You people are soooooo nice”. They were humbled and geniunely happy to be playing with Wild Nothing. They mentioned it was one of their favorite bands and it was great to see bands who genuinely liked each other.
Abe Vigoda from what I learned totally changed their sound from their first album to the second. This show was focused on mostly songs from their new album Crush. With some synth beats and influences from the gothic/cold post-punk rock leanings of Joy Division, they make it work. Some songs are quite catchy and more dance-y but most are guitar heavy with some beats thrown in. It works and is really likeable and grows on you quickly. The guys seem to be so happy and friendly and enjoying themselves so much, its hard not to like them.
Brooklyn’s Minks started out the night. Unfortunately for the band, the 2 female members have no stage presence. One girl didnt look up once from her keyboards the whole set while the other seemed to not even realize there was a crowd in front of her. Thankfully for the band, they had added a guitarist and bassist who at least seemed to want to be there. With an 80’s sound, not far behind Wild Nothing and the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, they could be a really awesome shoegaze band. And I did find when I was staring at my shoes, dancing along, not paying attention to the fact there was a live band, their music surprisingly worked.
All in all – 3 great bands that came together very well. It was a great fit musically with everyone complementing each other.
Posted in Adventures in the Big City, Live Music, Random Ramblings | Tagged: 2/13/11, Abe Vigoda, Bowery Ballroom, Brooklyn, concert, indie, indiepop, LA, live, Minks, music, NYC, rock, shoegaze, Wild Nothing | Leave a Comment »
Ramblings of a Redhead Music Snob 