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Patti Smith Brandishes a Weapon

December 30th, 2011

Patti Smith and Her Band – The Bowery Ballroom – December 29, 2011


Last night, on the eve of her 65th birthday, Patti Smith and her band began their sold-out three-night run at The Bowery Ballroom, just as they’ve done for the past 14 years. After beginning the show with intense, energetic versions of “Space Monkey,” “25th Floor” and “Birdland,” Smith greeted the hometown crowd, chatting in her typical familiar way, and described the many international travels and adventures she and the band experienced over the past year. “But there’s nothing like New York!” shouted out an overzealous crowd member. Smith paused, staring out, stone-faced, as a slight tension filled the room. “This is my fuckin’ punch line,” she proclaimed, with that ever-present twinkle in her eye.

In addition to her signature sharp attitude and wit, Smith’s performance was on point as well, as she interwove her spoken word with songs from the span of her career, including renditions of “Summer Cannibals,” “My Blakean Year,” “Don’t Say Nothing,” and crowd-pleasers like “Gloria,” and “Pissing in a River.” Throughout, longtime guitarist Lenny Kaye peppered the tunes with vigorous, intricate guitar solos. Of course, Smith is also known for her activism and political views, and in the past year has been a great supporter of the #Occupy movement. In addition to performing rallying songs like “People Have the Power,” she shouted messages of inspiration to the crowd throughout the set, encouraging us to speak out and create art, as well as suggesting that we occupy and focus efforts around the struggling city of Detroit.

When the clock struck midnight, everyone in the venue sang “Happy Birthday” to Smith, and the band struck up a snarling version of “Rock N Roll Nigger,” as the singer-songwriter peeled off her blazer, danced around and shredded away on an electric guitar, not unlike how she may have looked back when the song was released in 1978. “Behold the weapon of my generation!” Smith shouted, holding up her electric guitar. “It’s the only fucking weapon you need!” And with a few more strums and a wave to the crowd, she left the stage, a triumphant way to usher in her 65th year. —Alena Kastin

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A Holiday Party from the Future

December 19th, 2011

Twin Sister – The Bowery Ballroom – December 17, 2011

Twin Sister

The Bowery Ballroom was packed full of revelers for Twin Sister’s headlining set on Saturday night, as part of a sold-out holiday-themed show sponsored by ubiquitous music Web site Brooklyn Vegan. The five-piece specializes in a mellow style of spaced-out disco, the likes of which might be at home on an easy-listening station—on Mars. Equal parts soothing, chilling, ethereal and danceable, the music contains a unique otherworldly quality, largely due to singer Andrea Estella’s singular voice, which ranges from smooth and velvety to a high-pitched coo.

Although the band is fairly young (both in inception and members’ ages), they’ve already released a couple EPs and a full-length record since forming in 2008, and the group played a nice selection of songs from those discs during the set. Upbeat ones, like “Stop” and “Bad Street,” got the crowd moving, while “Lady Daydream” and “Eastern Green” enveloped the audience with slow, trippy grooves. “Gene Ciampi” contained a spaghetti western vibe, while the dramatic crooner “Spain” would fit nicely as a futuristic James Bond theme.

Openers Widowspeak also delivered a strong set: a beautiful interplay of warm reverb and singer Molly Hamilton’s soft, textured voice. Despite receiving a good deal of rapturous praise over the past year for their ’90s-inspired hazy rock, the band seemed endearingly modest, and when Hamilton shyly said, “Happy holidays” at the end of the set, flashing an awkward thumbs up, she seemed to almost immediately cringe with embarrassment, rushing to grab her gear and get offstage. While Widowspeak and Twin Sister may not be the kind of music you associate with your typical holiday party, they sure seemed to get the folks in the crowd in the (futuristic, spacey, tripped-out) holiday spirit last night. —Alena Kastin

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A Guitar Hero Takes the Stage

December 14th, 2011

Gary Clark Jr. – Mercury Lounge – December 13, 2011


Gary Clark Jr. took the stage last night at Mercury Lounge and hit one chord on his guitar. The note hung in the air, resonating with distortion and feedback for several minutes. As the energy in the sold-out room grew, so did the anticipation and the expectation, until the band finally joined him in an explosion of rock and roll. Clark spent the better half of the next 80 minutes single-handedly reinvigorating the blues genre. His guitar playing was a sight to behold. When he got rolling, his playing seemed to grow fangs, vicious, rip-the-flesh-off-the-bone kind of stuff. But Clark was the full package, and his voice was as equally impressive, sweet, soulful and pure.

The comparisons are easy because he made them clear throughout his set: Jimi Hendrix, yes, but also the straight blues of Robert Johnson, the soulful R&B of Marvin Gaye on “Things Are Changing” and the unfettered rockabilly of Chuck Berry on “Going Out That Back Door.” The material is familiar—trains coming and going in time with love sought and lost—but we haven’t heard it like this, not for a long time. One 10-minute stretch summed it all up: A long distorted note made way for a blues jam that finally coalesced around Hendrix’s “Third Stone from the Sun” before melting in a fury of guitar, bass and drums and becoming a ferocious “Gotta Set You Straight.”

After multiple red-meat solos, Clark stepped back and played rhythm while the rest of his band revealed they were a full-throated, not-too-shabby power trio of their own. Their jam dissolved into a drum solo before Clark re-emerged, weaving three or more mind-altering guitar solos with the “Third Stone” theme before finally coming to an end to let awestruck concertgoers process what they had just witnessed. Later, Clark was equally compelling on his own, playing two songs solo including a beautiful version of the traditional “Freight Train.” The set concluded well after midnight with his “hit” song, “Bright Lights,” which encapsulated the show with the bounty of pitch-perfect vocals, overlapping guitar solos, its NYC setting and the boast that “you’re going to know my name by the end of the night.” It ain’t bragging if it’s true. —A. Stein

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Home for the Holidays

December 12th, 2011

The Antlers – Webster Hall – December 10, 2011

(Photo: Dan Rickershauser)

Saturday night was really the first night we’ve had in New York City that felt like the harsh and relentless winter to which we’re all accustomed. Maybe it was the biting cold air or maybe it was the thousands of drunken Santa Clauses strewn across the city. Whatever marked the occasion, there couldn’t be a more appropriate soundtrack to changing seasons than the music of the Antlers. Not just because of the band’s unintentionally festive name, but because the Antlers’ unique brand of fragile harmonies and heartfelt songwriting perfectly reflects the subtle splendor of winter that just barely makes the season bearable.

Their music showcases a unique type of beauty, one that rises from singer Peter Silberman’s dark songwriting. The group’s critically acclaimed 2009 release, Hospice, told the story of an emotionally abusive relationship through the analogy of a hospice worker and a patient. If that sounds depressing, the music Silberman’s crafted around the theme is anything but. For the Brooklyn-based Antlers, Saturday’s show at Webster Hall was a homecoming of sorts, returning to the U.S. from a long string of performances across Europe. The set was comprised mostly of songs off their latest release, the also critically acclaimed Burst Apart. And the defining moments were the songs that required careful listening before rewarding listeners by upping the volume and intensity to play out the final moments.

This was especially true with “Rolled Together,” which started softly and gently before a climactic crescendo. The band finished with a ghostly rendition of “Putting the Dog to Sleep” before returning to play a three-song encore. “The difference between now and a couple years ago is not lost on us,” remarked Silberman of a sold-out Webster Hall before finishing the encore with “Epilogue” (I dare you to find a more appropriately titled finale). With the goose-bump inducing nature of Silberman’s sharp falsetto serenades, it was a perfect capstone to a compelling show, by chance scheduled at the most perfect time of the year to hear it. —Dan Rickershauser

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The Simple Becomes the Sublime

December 9th, 2011

Dreamers of the Ghetto – Mercury Lounge – December 8, 2011


Romanticizing the awfulness of the American ghetto experience isn’t necessarily new, although perhaps the modalities have changed in 2011. Even Lupe Fiasco suggested that if urban life threatened any lionizing appeal, it was certainly outweighed by practical realities. Dreamers of the Ghetto entered themselves into this conversation with a stunning debut record, Enemy/Lover, and a fall tour in support of U.S. Royalty that stopped at Mercury Lounge last night

The four-piece Dreamers evokes a certain grittiness that befits the moniker—they’re underdogs dreaming of getting out or they’re solid outsiders dreaming of what happens within in the walls and streets of the American ghetto. Either way, the band pits wailing guitars against detached synthesizers, alongside pathos-rich vocals. This combination transmutes the band into the rarefied air of aspirational visionaries, hope-in-unseen believers armed with instruments.

Dreamers of the Ghetto closed the night with the breathy, seductive chorus of vocals of “Connection,” “Regulator” and the band’s thesis statement, “Tether.” Each song featured a central lyric loudly repeated and launched like projectiles into the minds and chests of the assembled audience: “When you’re gone I know you’re with me” (“Connection”), “I love your face/ I think you’re striking” (“Regulator”) and the fantastic and final “It’s just another door/ Tether on the other side” (“Tether”). Somehow these dark dreams of American terrors became beautiful; love, loss and fear of the urbane metastasizing into wide-open hymns and singable refrains. It was a dark pathos to be sure, but pathos all the same. —Geoff Nelson

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Gene Ween Strikes Just the Right Note

December 5th, 2011

Gene Ween and Dave Dreiwitz – Brooklyn Bowl – December 3, 2011


How is it possible to leave a Gene Ween show with a tear in your eye? Don’t worry, it isn’t because Dean broke up the band, but it might have been the soothing sounds of an acoustic three-piece under multicolor lasers or the gentle crashing of strikes at the nearby lanes at Brooklyn Bowl that transformed Ween’s wacky genre-hopping material into sincere tearjerkers on Saturday night. He seemed to literally become a new character on each track, wide eyed, his face transforming, singing in the upper-register earnest falsetto about “…blood from the stallion.”

Moving from this progressive jam into an Irish sea shanty, Gene told the audience it was a cover of an old song they’d tracked down in the Smithsonian archives, which might actually be true. But even the most hardcore Ween fans aren’t possibly going to know all of the band’s material, especially if what’s coming next is a cover of Neil Young’s “The Needle and the Damage Done.” Ween has succeeded at creating a devoted fan following willing to follow them down any musical rabbit hole, including this epic, sit-down acoustic “An Evening With” session.

But maybe that’s where the tongue in cheek turned sentimental because, after all, the guys in Ween are great songwriters, and stripped of the genre irony, songs like “Little Birdy” can be touching. At times the show felt like a children’s sing-along party with hidden layers of dual meaning, especially when Gene pounded out “Demon Sweat” in front of the velvet curtain like a possessed Billy Joel. Sure, it was a license to cheese, but when Gene brought his daughter Ana onstage to nervously sing “Happy Colored Marbles,” it was just what we needed: a little dose of sincerity. —Jason Dean

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A Funky Good Time

December 5th, 2011

Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires – The Bowery Ballroom – December 3, 2011


It takes a certain something to pull off a custom outfit with your initials in sequin on the back. You can’t really put that certain something into words, but you know it when you see it. And if you were lucky enough to be part of the sold-out Bowery Ballroom crowd on Saturday night, you saw it in all its show-stopping glory. The initials on the back were “CB” for Charles Bradley, and the grooves he and his aptly named band, the Extraordinaires, channeled were all sorts of in-the-flesh “JB.”

It isn’t every night that the Ballroom is hopping front to back with old-school soul and R&B, but Bradley had the room moving. Working the material off his acclaimed 2011 release, No Time for Dreaming, Bradley made sure there was no time even for resting, with each number deep and funky. Grooves like this are only as good as the band laying them down, and the stable of Daptone musicians backing Bradley kept things in the pocket all night.

Bradley’s voice oozed with soul and filled with lament and joy. The night’s highlight cover was a souped-up version of Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold,” with Bradley maintaining the depth of the lyrics while infusing all sorts of funkiness Young probably didn’t know existed in there. Like everything else he sang, Bradley made it his own. The sparkling sequin initials left no doubt. —A. Stein

(Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires and the Budos Band play Music Hall of Williamsburg on 12/31.)

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Baths’ Time on Friday Night

December 5th, 2011

Baths – The Bowery Ballroom – December 2, 2011

(Photo: Andie Diemer)

Electronic music isn’t easy to perform live for a lot of reasons, the main one being that it’s difficult to make music derived from a guy clicking away on his laptop translate into a compelling live performance. Will Wiesenfeld of Baths doesn’t have this problem. If anything, watching the amount of work he puts into rebuilding songs before an audience sets new expectations of what an electronic-music show should look like.

Turning knobs and pressing down on what looked like an endless array of buttons while keeping rhythm of the songs with his entire body, Wiesenfeld certainly doesn’t make piecing these tracks together look easy. On Friday night at The Bowery Ballroom, he would often throw his hand back after touching his gear, as if all this endless tinkering had resulted in the equipment getting too hot to even touch. During some of Baths’ most memorable, Wiesenfeld would grab the microphone with both hands and add his ethereal vocals to this man-made symphony of samples, beats and other odd noises, acting as a reminder that he’s the original creator of this collection of sounds.

“This is the most excitable New York crowd I’ve ever had,” said Wiesenfeld of an audience that followed his every move, finding ways to dance along to everything from the glitchy breakbeats of “Indoorsy” to the calming swells of “Aminals.” While Baths’ ability to showcase all the effort it takes to piece together this music impressed, the show’s best moments occurred when it all would coalesce into energy strong enough to sweep up the audience with it. If there’s one right way to play this new chillwave sound live, this is how you do it. —Dan Rickershauser

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Future Islands Bring the Heat

December 2nd, 2011

Future Islands – The Bowery Ballroom – December 1, 2011

(Photo: Dan Rickershauser)

Samuel T. Herring, the lead singer of Future Islands, is without a doubt the hardest workingman in post-Wave, and he proved it at The Bowery Ballroom last night. Breaking into a dripping sweat just one song into the set, Herring poured his everything into each word he sang—and it visibly showed. At times sitting on his knees before the front row like he was making a desperate plea, other times gesturing wildly like he was ripping out his own heart and handing it off to the dancing crowd for the taking, Herring’s showmanship only added to the poetry of his songwriting.

And that voice. While Herring’s uniquely soulful crooning might be the first thing to stick out on Future Islands’ recordings—it absolutely defines the band’s live performance—transitioning from throaty growls to strained high-pitched proclamations seemed to all but suck the oxygen out of the packed room. All this was set to the backdrop of William Cashion’s rolling bass and Gerrit Welmers’ keyboard and synth lines that kept the crowd in motion.“This means a lot to us and I don’t know what to say,” said Herring halfway through the set. His ear-to-ear grin showed genuine disbelief that the group was performing before a wildly enthusiastic crowd in a sold-out venue.

Following opening acts Zomes and Ed Schrader’s Music Beat, it was an impressive showing for the well-established and ever-expanding Baltimore music scene, with all three bands hailing from Charm City. Set highlights included the opening song, “An Apology,” a high-energy rendition of “Tin Man” and “Before the Bridge.” At the chorus of “Before the Bridge,” Herring stuck his finger out to the audience during refrains of “Do you believe in love?” like he was personally asking them to believe. If they didn’t already, this heartfelt performance might have been just enough to push them over the edge. —Dan Rickershauser

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A Thursday Night Rock Show

December 2nd, 2011

J. Roddy Walston and the Business – Mercury Lounge – December 1, 2011


If you go see enough music, occasionally you get lucky. I don’t mean “see a great show” lucky, I mean you get to witness a band at the right time in the right room on the right night with the right crowd and can almost literally feel the slope of the upward career trajectory. Last night—J. Roddy Walston, Mercury Lounge, sold-out crowd all in perfect resonance—was one of those moments. Indeed, it’s shows like these, with Walston and band laying down no-frills rock and roll like they invented FM radio, that rooms like the Merc were built to house.

Walston’s band is called the Business, and watching them play is to realize how perfectly they’ve been named. There’s a multiple entendre at play. And whether it’s “giving them the business” or “now we’re in business” or “none of your [bleeping] business,” the band encompasses them all. Opening with “Don’t Break the Needle,” off last year’s eponymous album, the band wasted no time getting down to business. When Walston, sitting stage center at a piano, reached the chorus of the opening song, the crowd joined in, totally in unison, as if they were a backup choir filling in on cue. Guitar riffs were short and vicious, spicy condiments on Walston’s songs. His voice was a nice now-we’re-in-business blend of classic rock staples: a little Browne, a little Plant, a little Joel. He introduced several tunes as “some rock and roll” in an endearing, redundant way … well, duh!

The set had a lot of forward momentum, slight shifts in tempo and tone along the way, with the crowd totally in tune. Of all the bands to cover, perhaps my last guess would have been the Flaming Lips, but they gave the business to “She Don’t Use Jelly,” fitting it into the set quite nicely. Before the last song, Walston announced there would be no encore and those in the audience moaned briefly before getting their last raging fist pumps in for the evening. Why wouldn’t they consider an encore for the rabid, NYC crowd? I guess that’s none of our business. —A. Stein

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The Sophisticated Sounds of Frank Ocean

November 28th, 2011

Frank Ocean – The Bowery Ballroom – November 27, 2011


On “Swim Good,” one of the surprise hits from his debut mixtape, Nostalgia, Ultra, Frank Ocean sings, “And I’ve got this black suit on/ Roaming around like I’m ready for a funeral.” The song, like most of his limited yet excellent output, is dark, complex and soulful. It also comes from an artist whose 2011 emergence rivals all others, going from unknown Odd Future crew member to almost instant popularity as a Watch the Throne collaborator.

Before a sold-out crowd at The Bowery Ballroom last night, Ocean performed in his aforementioned black suit with a red-and-white-striped bandanna. The hip and sophisticated costume drew attention, not only from fans but kingmakers in attendance. ?uestlove, seated on the balcony, felt compelled to comment on Twitter, saying, “@ffrank_ocean [sic] is a class act yo. Suit & Sade cover. Nice start.”

In addition to the Sade cover (“By Your Side”), Ocean sang a number of choice selections from Nostalgia, Ultra as well as a medley of his work on Watch the Throne (“No Church in the Wild” and “Made in America”). The diverse crowd knew most of his material, even unreleased songs familiar only to those who scour the Internet. But “Dissolution” and “Super Rich Kids,” both of which Ocean mentioned will be on his proper debut, are sure to be hits, and fans are right to take notice. So while Ocean was right about his outfit, he better not be ready for his funeral. —Jared Levy

(Tonight’s Frank Ocean show at The Bowery Ballroom is sold out.)

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A Supreme Storyteller

November 23rd, 2011

A.A. Bondy – The Bowery Ballroom – November 22, 2011


“My father always told me there was money to be made in sadness,” recounted A.A. Bondy to a sold-out Bowery Ballroom last night. Even if he wasn’t serious, it seems to be a message the singer-songwriter takes to heart, filling his set with emotional, downtempo music, singing stories in the sweet voice of someone regaining his composure after a good cry. While the show wasn’t a dance party, it wasn’t a downer either, despite the cold, wet rain falling outside.

Opening with “The Heart Is Willing,” the band highlighted the music off Bondy’s new Believers release. Recreating the haunting, Americana-flecked songs like the excellent “Rte. 28/Believers,” the band was catharsis in action. Bondy’s guitar played hollow notes like it, too, had just sobbed a bit. Songs took one of two paths: either appropriately petering out altogether or else coming to an explosive head with two guitars going angrily at each other. Although the best moments were the quiet ones, like “Mightiest of Guns,” when the pedal steel guitar was used to punctuate the poetry of the songwriting with both sadness and beauty.

At times sinewy strips of light covered the entire stage bouncing around in eerie, random motion, an effect I had never seen before until I realized that it wasn’t lights at all, but a projection of sun-glinted waves. It was brilliantly simple but powerful and evocative, a perfect match for the music. The encore started with Bondy solo and included the beautiful “Killed Myself When I Was Young,” wherein he sings: “Don’t weep, my girl so true/ Let the train whistle cry for you,” proving that while there may or may not be money in sadness, there certainly is great music. —A. Stein

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Ladies and Gentlemen: Youth Lagoon

November 16th, 2011

Youth Lagoon – Mercury Lounge – November 15, 2011

New is exciting. It breaks from routine and offers something different. When it comes to music, eager listeners latch onto new artists. This community supports potential, especially young talent. And on Tuesday night, a sold-out crowd poured into Mercury Lounge to discover Youth Lagoon. Trevor Powers, the band’s 22-year-old principal, speaks like he sings: softly and fragilely. Halfway through the set, he expressed gratitude for the opportunity to visit New York City. Behind a keyboard, he, along with friend and touring guitarist Logan Hyde, played in near darkness, with only a dim red lightbulb to light their faces.

While Powers’ reverb-saturated vocals gave the illusion of being in a cave, dream-pop landscapes enveloped the room and a backing track supplied heft and driving purpose to wandering melodies. Performed live, songs from the debut full-length, The Year of Hibernation, received the acoustic space they deserve. Earnest songwriting isn’t new, and although I overheard an observer call Powers “an infantile Dylan,” he hardly fits the description. Excitement excuses genuine but misguided praise, and Youth Lagoon is for the moment. —Jared Levy

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Russian Circles Stand Out

November 15th, 2011

Russian Circles – The Bowery Ballroom – November 14, 2011


In an already crowded field of metal instrumental bands these days, it takes a lot of skill and innovation for Chicago’s Russian Circles to have worked their way into the playlists of fans alongside well-established acts like Pelican, Red Sparowes and This Will Destroy You. The group has managed to carve out a niche, combining elements of heavy doom metal and technical sampled guitar from Mike Sullivan. Their melodic propulsion has been steadily evolving across four albums, culminating in much of the material from Empros played last night at The Bowery Ballroom.

Dave Turncrantz has his work cut out for him on drums, creating the complex backbone of precise pounding in order to drive the epic heights and valleys of layered guitar and bass tones. The stage experience Russian Circles creates is as equally controlled, lit only by four blinding bare bulbs, which reflected off the polished cymbals when the sound dropped into full volume, leaving the band to play in silhouette. There were no pauses or interaction between songs, just a slowly fading cycle of delayed loops fading into distortion, as if this were one long calculated piece full of classical movements.

The exception was an unplanned break due to Brian Cook’s bass head completely blowing out midshow, which speaks to the punishment his amp has received over the tour, the physicality of their live show and their focus on bass-driven tracks, the guttural crunch clearly having taken its toll on equipment. After a quick fix, the trio was back to defying instrumental convention, forcing every note and melodic drone front and center, impossible to be heard as merely soundtrack, propping up those visually emotional moments, creating them out of the darkness. —Jason Dean

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Sebadoh Doesn’t Miss a Note

November 14th, 2011

Sebadoh – Music Hall of Williamsburg – November 12, 2011


The best thing that happened to Lou Barlow was getting kicked out of Dinosaur Jr. If he had stayed with J. Mascis back in 1988 no one ever would have heard his four-track collage experiments that began with collaborator Eric Gaffney and ended up passed around on cassettes. We’d be missing someone, who as a pioneer of lo-fi indie rock, legitimized a new genre of bedroom recordings. We also might not have heard Jason Lowenstein, who, beginning in 1989, added his bass and a dissonant hardcore style of songwriting, making Sebadoh officially a band to be reckoned with and, fortunately, one we could see on Saturday night at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

It all started for a lot of people with the first track off Sebadoh III, “The Freed Pig,” Barlow’s attack on Mascis, which has become an anthem of frustration. The audience had plenty of songs from the back catalog to request, but this was high on the list. “Don’t worry, we’re getting to it,” replied Barlow a few songs into an epic two-hour set, the final show of a lengthy tour in support of the rerelease of Bakesale. While swapping instruments during the informal show, Lowenstein and Barlow bantered back and forth about ordering too many T-shirts, driving around the country in a minivan again and how Pavement would have filled that venue in Detroit.

It’s clear, especially live, that the balance between Barlow’s catchy, more personal mellow pop sound and Lowenstein’s aggressive punk speed is what kept everyone happy on those records. Unpredictably they played nearly all of Bakesale, often reworking a track entirely like on “Give Up,” where the huge Sabbath-chord-progression breakdown was expanded into an eternity of distortion while the melody was delivered almost unrecognizably fast. After “The Freed Pig,” Barlow, referencing Mascis’ guitar style, said to Lowenstein, “I always get self-conscious when I get to the lead part of that song, you know … the solo? Like someone is waiting for me to miss a note.” —Jason Dean

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