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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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Atlas Sound – The Bowery Ballroom – December 18, 2011

December 19th, 2011


Photos courtesy of Charles Steinberg

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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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You Can’t Stop Sharon Jones

December 14th, 2011

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings – The Bowery Ballroom – December 13, 2011


We waited together, packed shoulder to shoulder. The band was onstage but its fundamental element was missing, the SJ to the backdrop’s SJDK—because, quite simply, Sharon Jones makes Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. It’s her presence and voice that give the band an identity. Without her, the Dap-Kings are a talented nine-piece band in similar suits. So when Jones finally appeared, wearing a golden brown ruffled sequin dress, the collective mood noticeably shifted. We finally saw whom we came to see.

For her part, Jones performed with abundant focus and energy, harkening back to soul singer/performer extraordinaire James Brown. Even before the music started, guitarist Binky Griptite announced each of Jones’s notable songs to a short band review, identical to the sequence of a Brown show. And, like Brown, Jones sings, dances and emotes herself to the point of exhaustion. After a performance of the ancestry dance song, a long narrative explanation of her dance style, she huffed and paced. But like Muhammad Ali in the ring, her display seemed as such a part of the performance as it was a breather. She quickly recovered. —Jared Levy

Photos courtesy of Alexis Maindrault | rockinpix.com

(Tonight’s Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings show at The Bowery Ballroom is sold out.)

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A War on Drugs That Makes Sense

December 12th, 2011

The War on Drugs – The Bowery Ballroom – December 11, 2011


You know how in certain kinds of movies, there’s that straight-laced annoying guy who accidentally eats the wrong brownies and all of the sudden he’s on some psychedelic introspective journey? Well something like that is happening to indie rock right now, with several bands providing the baked goods and your straight-up guitar/bass/ drums/keys shoegazing pop taking off its shoes and shirt and losing itself in the moment. Leading that charge is the War on Drugs, the Philadelphia band that turned a Sunday night rock show at The Bowery Ballroom into a psych-pop head-trip.

The War on Drugs seemed to play their music inside out, with hairy stretches of music occasionally broken up by lyrics. Songs stretched past their end point with short, electrifying noise jams persisting in the space between; harmonica and sax providing a cosmic edge. The music wasn’t focused on a catch or a hook or a chorus for the bouncing crowd to sing along to—rather it seemed to generate its own alternate reality with nettled guitar and off-meter drumming and Blood on the Tracks-era songsmanship. And the driver was Dave Hartley’s bass, playing nonstop Dali-melting-clocks riffs.

The show was punctuated by tunes from the band’s acclaimed 2011 release, Slave Ambient, but when you’re playing a sold-out show, there’s little reason to devote too much time to selling a new album and the War on Drugs bounced through their catalog nicely. Songs flowed into one another with a dreamy stream of consciousness until it felt like you might be dreaming because it sounded like they were playing the Grateful Dead. Indeed, it’s not everyday you get to hear a droning, silly-putty cover of “Touch of Grey” at The Bowery Ballroom by a band passing around a bottle of Maker’s Mark, but that’s the kind of thing that happens when you eat the brownies the War on Drugs are making these days. —A. Stein

Photos courtesy of Mike Benigno | mikebenigno.wordpress.com

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Contest

Grow a Pair: Win Free Tickets to See the Weakerthans on 12/9

December 6th, 2011

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The Weakerthans come to town to play four shows at The Bowery Ballroom this week. Each one is sold out, but The House List is giving away two tickets to Friday’s show. Want to go? Then try to Grow a Pair. Just fill out the form below, making sure to include your full name, e-mail address, which show you’re trying to win tickets to (the Weakerthans, 12/9) and a brief message explaining what you most like about this Canadian quartet. Eddie Bruiser, who’s had a thing for Canadian bands ever since he first heard “Tom Sawyer,” will notify the winner by Friday. Good luck.

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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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Markéta Irglová – The Bowery Ballroom – November 30, 2011

December 1st, 2011


Photos courtesy of Mike Benigno | mikebenigno.wordpress.com

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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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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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Who Wants to Have Fun?

November 10th, 2011

Fun. – The Bowery Ballroom – November 9, 2011

(Photo: Sean O’Kane)

It wasn’t so long ago that fun. was struggling to make its place in the music scene, playing shows to mixed reactions, settling into New York City as a new home and working around sharing its members with other bands while pushing out a debut album, Aim & Ignite. But last night’s show at The Bowery Ballroom made it seem like those harder times never happened, as the band played to a sold-out room filled with wild, loud and passionate fans who look like they’ve been around for years.

Lead singer Nate Ruess said early on that this would be “one of those perfect nights” right before a scheduled album release where they could have a good time while trying out some of the new material, and he was totally right. Alongside the songs that everyone already knows, the band tried out a few from that forthcoming album (entitled Some Nights, due out in February), all of which already have a glistening polish on them, and ranged from string-backed (there was a three-piece section on stage) slower songs to horn-filled dance-party tracks.

The fans should hope the band sticks with the five-piece core configuration that was onstage, because this was the best fun. has sounded yet, something that was exceptionally noticeable on the older songs. “Barlights” was played midset but with an encore-worthy level of energy from both Ruess and the crowd. And “Take Your Time,” an equally boisterous song, also provided the most moving moments of the night, when Ruess smiled through a long pause before the lyrics “now I feel like I am home.” The crowd cheered, the song picked up again, and fun. finished off one of its best shows yet, perhaps marking the end of the beginning and certainly showing that this band is here to stay. —Sean O’Kane

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The Sea and Cake Sound Like No Other

November 10th, 2011

The Sea and Cake – The Bowery Ballroom – November 8, 2011


You can look at the miracles of Mother Nature and either search for a scientific explanation or just let their beauty astound you. Some people look at a seashell and see a Fibonacci series while others only see a beautiful seashell. In the same way, some at The Bowery Ballroom on Tuesday night watched the Sea and Cake and tried their best to work through the pop calculus of rhythms and melodies generated by Sam Prekop (guitar and vocals), Archer Prewitt (lead guitar), John McEntire (drums) and Eric Claridge (bass) while the rest of the crowd just bobbed along appreciating the pure beauty of the music.

Without a proper new album to push, the band was free to work through its catalog, playing well-polished versions of material from the last few years and a couple of dips into the earlier stuff. It’s a unique pleasure to watch a band and not be constantly thinking about which other groups they sound like. With Pekoe’s ephemeral vocals floating over cumulus guitars and restless drumming, this band sounded like no other. The consistent sound guarantees that if you like one song, you’re going to love it, and if you love one, you’re going to love them all. The crowd reacted to single presong chords from Prewitt or Precept with excitement each and every time, whether it was “Up on the North Shore,” from this year’s Moonlight Butterfly EP, or “Afternoon Speaker,” off 2000’s Oui.

Prekop’s strumming was quick and fleet while Prewitt’s guitar work contrasted— deliberately picked or summoned with an e-bow. Impossibly, Claridge kept things from running away with long, velvety bass notes. And as the set grew deeper, the buttons on McEntire’s shirt came undone and the music became looser and easier, with the crowd growing more and more vocal. A four-song encore proved not to be quite enough to work through the math. So the Sea and Cake returned a second time for a quick instrumental, leaving half the crowd reaching for their slide rules and everyone smiling. —A. Stein

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