Best Coast – The Bowery Ballroom – September 29, 2010
September 30th, 2010
Tallest Man on Earth – Webster Hall – September 27, 2010
September 28th, 2010
Titus Andronicus – Webster Hall – September 25, 2010
September 27th, 2010
Eels – Terminal 5 – September 25, 2010
September 27th, 2010
Stars – Terminal 5 – September 24, 2010
September 27th, 2010
John Legend and the Roots – Terminal 5 – September 23, 2010
September 24th, 2010
Stanton Moore Trio with Anders Osborne – September 23, 2010
September 24th, 2010
Much Better Late Than Never
September 22nd, 2010Wavves – Music Hall of Williamsburg – September 21, 2010
About 15 minutes after the posted set time at Music Hall of Williamsburg last night, Wavves bassist Stephen Pope finally came out and started setting up. When he left, the drummer, Billy Hayes, came out and did the same. Then guitarist and lead vocalist Nathan Williams untangled his cords. It wasn’t clear why they went about it in such a manner, but it did have the effect of getting those in the crowd good and eager, which is how they stayed until the end. When the music finally began, the trio made it clear they were in a playfully combative mood. Wavves spent much of the time between songs bantering with the crowd, fulfilling and denying requests, smoking and pattering on with inside jokes and non sequiturs galore.
While the preshow prep may have been frustratingly serial, the music was gloriously parallel: Three Uzis raining a constant stream of ammunition on the percolating audience. The pent-up energy from the delayed start exploded immediately into an early-week mosh pit from the first blast of noise. Pope’s flying-V bass was an extraterrestrial chainsaw, buzzing with electricity beneath Hayes’ drumming. Williams was crackling with slacker-punk energy staying just this side of being completely out of control. Ultimately, though, some in the crowd lost control, continuing to pester, heckle and call out requests. The band humored the shouts and tried to overcome, but eventually gave in, honoring the call for “No Hope Kids” midset instead of in its intended closer spot. The pit bounced with triumphant energy as the band raised it to another level, but they were right, it would have been better to end the show. —A. Stein
Photos courtesy of Jennifer Macchiarelli | www.jennylow.com
Stream New Jimmy Eat World Songs
September 22nd, 2010Jimmy Eat World plays Terminal 5 twice in October. Tickets remain for the first show, on 10/13, but the second one, on 10/14, is sold out. The Mesa, Ariz., quartet will be touring behind their seventh album, Invented, which comes out next Tuesday. But the band was kind enough to offer up three songs—“My Best Theory,” “Movielike” and “Stop”—for your streaming pleasure.
Ra Ra Riot – The Bowery Ballroom – September 21, 2010
September 22nd, 2010
Photos courtesy of Sean O’Kane | seanokanephoto.com
(Tickets are still available for Ra Ra Riot’s show at Music Hall of Williamsburg tomorrow.)
Grow a Pair: Win Free Tickets to See the National on 9/24
September 21st, 2010
The National plays The Wellmont Theatre on Friday. Since they’re a really popular band, the show sold out. But the silver lining is that The House List is giving away two tickets. Want to go? Then try to Grow a Pair. It’s easy. Just fill out the form below, listing your name, e-mail address, which show you’re trying to win tickets to (the National, 9/24) and a brief message explaining why the start of fall is a good thing. Eddie Bruiser, who’s pretty excited that football season has begun, will notify the winner by Friday. Good luck.
Klaxons – The Bowery Ballroom – September 20, 2010
September 21st, 2010
Photos courtesy of Diana Wong | dianawongphoto.blogspot.com
(Klaxons play Music Hall of Williamsburg tomorrow.)
Big Band, Big Sound, Big Night
September 20th, 2010Broken Social Scene – SummerStage – September 18, 2010
Labor Day has come and gone, but summer technically lives on. The weather cooperated on Saturday, and an outdoor party in Central Park with Broken Social Scene providing the soundtrack was a brilliant idea. Bathed in red light and wasting no time, the Toronto collective launched into “KC Accidental,” the kind of anthem with which normal rock bands close their big-time NYC gigs. Of course, BSS is no normal rock band, and sometime between the blistering three-guitar start and the pogoing, fist-pumping finish, the number of musicians onstage doubled, with horn players and guitars everywhere you looked.
Later on, after an especially powerful “Cause = Time,” frontman Kevin Drew introduced himself to a horn player he said he’d never met. “This type of thing happens all the time in Broken Social Scene,” he exclaimed, and no doubt it does. The music was a magnet for more music and more musicians to make it. And there were enough on hand for a tour de force middle section of “Art House Director,” “Hotel” and “Romance to the Grave.” The latter was perfectly atmospheric and well served by the Sam Prekop’s vocals. In the opening slot, his band, the Sea and Cake, was a perfect foil. Their sound was slim and clean, a late-summer breeze floating on Prekop’s vocals and Archer Prewitt’s drifting guitar. Their bandmate John McEntire was an honorary BSS member for the night, providing double drumming on highlight after highlight.
The sound was big and when coaxed by the soundman to throw caution to the wind and just pay the fine for excessive volume, Drew and Co. didn’t require any arm-twisting, screaming out “Superconnected” with plenty of Andrew Whiteman guitar solos. Pushing up against curfew, even the encore was larger than life: four songs—each of which would have done the trick on its own—anchored by Whiteman’s beautiful “Looks Just Like the Sun.” Summer may have saved its best for last. —A. Stein
Photos courtesy of Gregg Greenwood | www.gregggreenwood.com
No Age – Music Hall of Williamsburg – September 18, 2010
September 20th, 2010
Photos courtesy of Charles Steinberg
