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“In the beginning there was rhythm,” THE SLITS once sang, and this double bill definitely proved that. Headliners TV ON THE RADIO debuted new songs from their forthcoming second full-length album Return to Cookie Mountain to a rapturous response from the sold-out Bowery Ballroom crowd.
I’d seen TV on the Radio play twice before in the past year, but always opening for bigger acts. Last September, I saw them open for THE ROOTS at the Verizon Wireless Theater in Philadelphia. A month later, I saw them open for FRANZ FERDINAND at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. While I enjoyed both of these opening sets, it seemed like they were always the bridesmaid, but never the bride. Thus, finally, I was looking forward to seeing them headline. And they sure didn’t disappoint!
They opened with “The Wrong Way” (thankfully not the SUBLIME song), from their debut full-length Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes, and then followed that stunner with “I Was a Lover” from the new one – a fantastic opening one-two punch. From that point on during the main set, they focused mainly on the new material, including the terrific forthcoming album opener “Wolf Like Me,” though “Young Liars” (the title track of their first EP) was also tackled in the short, barely 45-minute main set.
One thing that really struck me was how a TV on the Radio show is more about the feeling one gets from their music and the groove that they emanate as opposed to just the songs. This was especially evident on the new material. I could just tell that they were ON and the crowd gave it back to them in spades, with loads of people up front dancing and singing along.
The beautiful, doo-wop-like harmonies of lead singer TUNDE ADEBIMPE and guitarist/vocalist KYP MALONE wove together with the buzz-like howl of guitarists Malone and DAVID SITEK to take us into never-never land. Like many great post-punk and shoegazer bands before them, TV on the Radio understands that there’s a fine line between beauty and dissonance, and they manage to capture it perfectly in their best moments. At times, it was almost like one beautiful, cascading, repetitive groove which just pulled us listeners into its vortex and didn’t let go.
Thus, it made sense that the music playing between bands on this evening was the Congotronics series, featuring musicians like KONONO NO.1 playing repetitive grooves on traditional percussion instruments and a thumb piano.
For some songs during the main set, TV on the Radio had members of openers (and 4AD labelmates) CELEBRATION and THE FAKERS (who I missed) join them on stage, which just added to the beautiful cacophony. For their two-song encore, they had a fan who won a contest join them on stage for a half-hearted “Staring at the Sun” (a song that appeared on both the “Young Liars” EP and their first full-length, so perhaps they’re a bit sick of it), followed by a pulverizing version of “Ambulance” which was a fitting ending to a blistering set.
As for Celebration’s opening set, having never heard them before aside from their version of “King Ink” on a tribute album to THE BIRTHDAY PARTY, I was definitely impressed. Singer KATRINA FORD’s unintelligible wail reminded me a bit of KAREN O with a speech impediment (not an insult) and multi-instrumentalist SEAN ANTANAITIS’s organ playing reminded me a lot of YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS, though drummer DAVID BERGANDER pummels the skins to ensure that their live energy comes across, thus making for an intoxicating and original-sounding mix, much different from the many unoriginal post-punk revival bands.
For about half of the show, Ford was off the stage and singing in the audience, declaring that she prefers it down there because she wants all of us to believe that we can be performers as well. Right on. Despite wearing a ridiculous yellow outfit with go-go boots, she seemed like a genuinely nice person who really wanted to be up there playing. Since this was the first night of their tour with TV on the Radio, she also seemed a bit nervous as well.
The above photos were both taken at the Union Pool show last week featuring both TV on the Radio and Celebration. The first photo is courtesy of sgoralnick flickr account and the second is courtesy of ultrahi flickr account.
