Tag Archives: Assembly of Dust
A Band Plays Its First Show
July 12th, 2010The Statesmen – Brooklyn Bowl – July 9, 2010
Jonah Smith
It’s a special treat to see a band play gig No. 1. Maybe it will be the only show or maybe it will be the first of hundreds. Everything is just potential energy at that point. Well, maybe not quite everything. On Friday night, a new band called the Statesmen played their first live show, opening for Assembly of Dust at Brooklyn Bowl, and there was all sorts of energy abound in their tight 40-minute set. While the Statesmen are a new group, their members have been seen in clubs around town for quite a while now. Jonah Smith is the frontman on lead vocals and Fender Rhodes and Nord synth, with frequent cohort Ben Rubin on bass, plus Scott Metzger, on guitar, and Josh Dion, on drums and vocals, to round out the quartet.
Remarkably, the set consisted entirely of original material. Nary a clunker in the bunch, each song had a refreshing twangy groove with enough soul and swing to go around. Smith seems to be the kind of guy who wakes up in the morning with great songs waiting for him under his pillow, and this crop of tunes is no different. The energy was purely positive, each member of the foursome wearing his joy on his face. Metzger, NYC’s great guitar chameleon, was on target with each note, whether it was a quick, fiery solo or a funky rhythm to match Dion’s wild energy and Rubin’s foundation. The chemistry, with Dion’s and Smith’s vocals meshing in 1+1=3 fashion, and Metzger and Rubin making eyes at each other as they hit their marks, was impressive for a fresh-out-of-the-gates showing. These guys know how to do things—first write the songs, then get the chemistry and energy right, then make sure you and your audience are having plenty of fun, and then get the Web site. —A. Stein
Assembly of Dust – Mercury Lounge – April 29, 2009
May 4th, 2009
(Photo: Christina Keller)
There is something slightly unsettling about going into a rock club for a show while the sun is still out. But with the warm weather finally pushing its way into town, and summer nigh, a little daylight with your rock and roll ain’t such a bad thing. This is especially true for sunshine music like the Assembly of Dust, who played the early show at the Mercury Lounge on Wednesday.
The band opened appropriately with “Arc of the Sun,” an upbeat, beaming number with a tinge of Pink Floyd-esque psychedelia threaded through it. With front-man Reid Genauer singing “We’ve been expecting you…” in wonderful harmony with his bandmates, the scene was set for an early rager. With the Dead warming up across the river in New Jersey, AoD did their best to capture and enliven a smidge of that Americana-meets-free-form vibe. This isn’t like the dark, out-there Dead, but rather the upbeat, sunny-afternoon version. Assembly of Dust is the equivalent of the feeling you get on a beautiful day when you just say “the hell with it,” leave work early and go romp around the park.
The music rode on Genauer’s songwriting and plenty of build-and-release moments to keep the crowd smiling. Throwing in a few brand new tunes from their forthcoming album, Some Assembly Required, the set was a bang-bang-bang affair of sing-alongs, boogie-downs and fist-pumpers. Everything built to a fiery conclusion with a long, guitar-jammed “Reverly” making way for a sharp “Spectulator.” This last tune built to a nice jam and then segued quite expertly into Neil Young’s “Comes a Time,” which bopped between tempos and genres before easing back into the “Speculator” coda to end the set. —A. Stein
