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This Brooklyn five-piece has been active since 2003, starting out as a duo of singer Brad Hargett and guitarist J.B. Townsend. But since I’ve only recently begun gorging on their second album In Love with Oblivion, this was only my first time seeing them (I missed their opening set for Sheffield, UK’s terrific, now sadly defunct Long Blondes at the Knitting Factory in July 2006). Led by Townsend’s axe-grinding, reverb-drenched guitar and Kyle Forester’s swirling, Ray Manzarek-like keyboards, and fueled by the groove-filled rhythms of Andy Adler and Keegan Cooke, the band served up a trippy, hallucinogenic concoction of The Doors, 13th Floor Elevators, and Nuggets-influenced garage rock. Of course, they played a good chunk of Oblivion, including dance-happy numbers “Through the Floor,” “Blood Barons,” and the catchy single “Shake the Shackles.” (They even threw in “Shackles” b-side “Magnetic Moon,” and “Sugarbaby,” the b-side to their “Love is a Wave” single.) As well, we got a few from their 2008 debut Alight the Night, and their 2011 Radiant Door EP.
In contrast to his mates, who were zoned-in and focused (especially Townsend, who often played with his back to the audience), the tousle-haired, expressionless Hargett seemed restless and uneasy by nature. Anxiously grasping the mic stand as he sang, his deep, echoed croon recalled Jim Morrison, further verifying the Doors comparisons. With a large draped sheet hanging behind them, onto which paint-splattered, kaleidoscopic images were projected, I couldn’t help but feel like I had stumbled into some illicit, impromptu ‘60s psychedelic basement party. The encore, an elongated version of Oblivion‘s closing “Prometheus at Large,” ended their hypnotic and stomping set in fine fashion.
Brooklyn’s Widowspeak also opened the Dum Dum Girls show I saw at Maxwell’s in February, but I only caught a few of their songs then. Normally a dueling guitars-and-drums trio, the band added a bassist for the show. Their music conjured up a mix of ethereal and windswept, old West desert soundtracks, thanks to Molly Hamilton‘s near-whispered, seductive coo and Robert Earl Thomas‘s Morricone-inspired licks. Once again, another entrancing opening set!
