The most vital show I’ve seen recently was not a long-awaited re-appearance of yet another 1980’s luminary, but an evening with two local bands, BELL HOLLOW and BLACKLIST.
It turns out that some drunken, small-minded fools decided to throw a PINK FLOYD poster at the band!
They opened with the great B-side “Lust in the Movies” and ran through all of their singles in a short, thirty-minute set.
On a quiet Tuesday night, Midlake showed why they’re one of the best up-and-coming bands in the US today.
While JENS LEKMAN is an entertaining, charismatic and funny performer, he has the annoying habit of radically rearranging his songs in a live setting.
It was worth sweating bullets in the insufferable heat of the First Unitarian Church basement to witness another great MISSION OF BURMA show.
The set was truly like a force of nature in terms of its intensity, power and passion.
All in all, it was a fantastic night of Swedish indie-pop, covering both the noisy and the gentle ends of the genre.
Touring behind their fantastic new album, Glaswegian twee-pop torchbearers CAMERA OBSCURA played a terrific, hour-long set.
JOE JACKSON is not only a legendary British singer-songwriter, but he was a resident of New York City for over twenty years.
The chiming majesty of the BAND OF HORSES brand of indie-pop was definitely impressive in a live setting despite some setbacks.
After listening to their debut album Give Me A Wall for months, I was expecting a sonic assault. And they didn’t disappoint.
They went on at about 10:30, and by 11:45 or so it was all over. However, they were so loud, catchy, fun and intense that it still felt draining afterwards, in the best possible way.
Playing to an at-best half-full TLA, Irish punk legends STIFF LITTLE FINGERS still put on a blistering, high-energy show.
I wish that the bill would be reversed, with ROGUE WAVE headlining, as should clearly be the case based on talent!
Along with the band, MARK E. SMITH seemed in excellent form, enthusiastically mumbling and slurring his way through an hour-and-fifteen-minute performance.
These old warhorses charged ahead at full gale for roughly 45 minutes with their razor sharp attack as fierce as ever.
Alongside the requisite hits they included unexpected surprises, like their version of Memphis standard “Green Onions.”
It was a rockabilly revival of religious proportions as the hip-swiveling prophet of HEAVY TRASH, JON SPENCER, testified his way to sweet salvation for the Dutch crowd.
The place was full well beyond capacity, and it was almost impossible to move, let alone dance, but it didn’t matter.
FILM SCHOOL let out blasts of noise that would’ve made their early ‘90s influences proud, thus further clearing out the unfortunately already small crowd.
On this evening, the show started off with the orchestra performing about 35 minutes of music from Il Sogno. After that, Costello came out and sang for the remainder of the show.
Although it isn’t quite a reunion without BILL MILLION there, it was still great to hear GLENN MERCER and company tackle FEELIES classics.
Although I’m not old enough to have followed him throughout his 30-year career, this show was my 19th time seeing Parker play live since I first saw him play in 1996.
Sometimes it seems like a fruitless exercise, because that night has happened. It’s over, done. It’ll never happen in the same way again.
The day started off with Terrastock mainstay TOM RAPP, a former member of ‘60s group PEARLS BEFORE SWINE.
“Terrastock is not an indie-rock A&R feeding frenzy. Bands and artists are there at the personal invitation of the organisers because we love their music.”
At times, it was almost like one beautiful, cascading, repetitive groove which just pulled us listeners into its vortex and didn’t let go.
Hitting the stage at roughly 10:00 PM, they opened with a jaw-dropping version of “Chris Michaels” from their 2004 tour-de-force Blueberry Boat.
This show was the final one of the duo’s existence, making it a bittersweet evening: a time to celebrate their music and say goodbye.
On record, Editors display songwriting chops out the wazoo, despite drawing inevitable (and lazy) comparisons to Interpol.
I was ecstatic to learn that the guys had decided on a whim to get together without the backing of an album and tour the USA.
Since they’re continuing the tour behind their sole album Bang Bang Rock and Roll, most of the material played was from that album.
VOXTROT played a slightly abridged set, hampered by technical difficulties, that nevertheless cemented their status as one of the best up-and-coming bands in the country.
For the uninitiated, The Go! Team’s music encompasses everything from early ‘70s soul, old-school hip-hop and garage rock to modern-day electronica and indie-rock, all under one umbrella.
Playing their first US tour dates in over 15 years, THE POGUES tore through the last night of their four-night stand.
This show represented a trio of DC veterans more famous for their celebrated older work trying to break out of those boxes.
They proved that their previous reputation as a shambling, inconsistent and awkward live band is well in the past and out of date.
Backed by a gigantic screen projecting all sorts of weird, psychedelic images throughout their performance, the concert felt more like a ‘60s “happening.”
Though at times I wished they had mixed it up a little, ultimately, something made me stay, and it was the absolutely infectious sound—in short, the show rocked, giving new meaning to the maligned term “jam band.”
Playing their first New York club show in 13 years, New Zealand indie-pop quartet THE BATS was awe-inspiring.
All of this is understandable, since Metric gives off an incredible amount of energy onstage. Every song seems like it’s twice as heavy and one and a half times as fast.
SISTERS OF MERCY played a lackluster show that made me wish that I hadn’t spent $45 plus service fees to see them.
Rob still has an amazing voice and he wrote some of the best songs of the ‘90s!
ROGUE WAVE and NADA SURF released albums that were among last year’s very best, which is why this double bill was such a treat.
While these songs from Belew’s solo albums were fairly dull, with too much guitar wanking, the King Crimson songs were another matter altogether.
For the second part of their first ever American tour, Japanese Visual Kei band D’ESPAIRS RAY returned to New York City to play an exhilarating show at Avalon.
They played all the classics, including “You Can’t Be Funky,” “Boom in the Night,” and their most well-known song, “Too Many Creeps.”
The show was no different from the one a few months back, in that the setlist consisted entirely of songs from their landmark first four LPs.
The President’s Day Motherf*cker bash, featuring a phenomenal performance by the NEW YORK DOLLS, was a total glam rock O.D.
