Tag Archives: Photos
The Joy Formidable – Terminal 5 – March 28, 2012
March 29th, 2012
The Split Personalities of Gotye
March 28th, 2012Gotye – Webster Hall – March 27, 2012
There’s certain schizophrenia to Webster Hall: Is it a dance club or a rock club? Is it half and half? That dual personality was the perfect setting for Gotye, who last night split his live sound into three overlapping personalities: one-third dance, one-third indie rock and one-third hypnotic dreamscape. Webster Hall was sold out, which seems to mean different things on different nights—not all sellouts are created equal. On Tuesday night, it was truly packed from front to back, the audience bubbling in a multilingual, multiaccented din while awaiting the start of the show.
The band took the stage and immediately launched into “Eyes Wide Open.” While Wally De Backer uses Gotye as his professional pseudonym, it’s clear that in the live setting the name covers everyone in the band who plays an equally important role. The multitalented guitarist added a nice flourish of lap steel to the opening song (and later played an electric mandolin) while the bassist took control of the melody. Still, the story of the band was drums and rhythm, with De Backer surrounded by all sorts of stuff to hit in addition to the drummer behind him and plenty more taken up by the other three musicians. The sound sat on the verge of digital and analog, mallets hitting drums and electronic pads and xylophones in equal amounts. There was something scientific to the music, with the band acting like a single-celled organism, Gotye at the nucleus pulsing messages electronically to the other band members in their organelles. Opening-act Kimbra joined Gotye for lyrics on “Somebody I Used to Know,” getting an even bigger reaction from those in the audience screaming for every song like each one was a favorite.
Behind the stage a single backdrop held a constant stream of projected images, scenes flipping through ultrarealistic time lapses of landscapes and cityscapes and other animated scenes and psychedelic colors. These matched up well enough to the music that it felt like every tune was more than just a song, but also a live-action music video, with the audience sucked into the action. “State of the Art” matched a killer multisynth attack with a weird retro-cartoon music monster perfectly. Gotye worked several audience-participation moments into the set, more or less playing the beloved Making Mirrors album in its entirety, constantly splitting his personality to the crowd’s constant delight. —A. Stein
Youth Lagoon – The Bowery Ballroom – March 27, 2012
March 28th, 2012
Pressure Gonna Drop on You
March 26th, 2012Toots and the Maytals – Brooklyn Bowl – March 25, 2012
Frederick Nathaniel “Toots” Hibbert is the self-proclaimed inventor of reggae. As the story goes, his 1968 recording of “Do the Reggay” is among the first songs to use the word and classify the style of music. But regardless of whether he is the genre’s rightful originator, he is certainly one of its oldest and most successful practitioners. At 66, Hibbert is still creating and performing to critical acclaim and large audiences. And on Sunday night at Brooklyn Bowl, Toots and the Maytals played with relentless energy to a sold-out crowd.
The set opened with Hibbert’s widely known “Pressure Drop.” In the years since appearing on the soundtrack to The Harder They Come, the song continues to stay in the public consciousness, with second life from covers by the Clash and other artists. For this show, the band’s straight-up midtempo performance established a solid foundation to build on. And as the group sped up and extended such hits as “Funky Kingston” and a “Louie Louie” cover, the crowd willingly followed suit, dancing and yelling with each call and response.
Throughout the show Hibbert stayed attentive to the band and the audience. “I have a big voice,” he told all, supporting the claim for close to two hours, closing with the semi-autobiographical crowd-favorite “54-46 (That’s My Number).” At the “Give it to me” part, Hibbert improvised and asked the crowd to “Give it to me 13 times.” After approximately thirteen responses of “Hey,” he responded with genuine surprise, “No one has ever done that,” he said. But as long as Toots Hibbert continues to perform, this record is sure to be broken: If he gives it to us, we’ll give it to him. —Jared Levy
(Toots and the Maytals also play Brooklyn Bowl tomorrow night.)
Miniature Tigers – The Bowery Ballroom – March 25, 2012
March 26th, 2012
A Strong Album Leads to a Stronger Performance
March 26th, 2012Dr. Dog – Terminal 5 – March 23, 2012
There are two types of bands, those that focus on recording and those that focus on live shows. It is the rare exception when both are an active priority, but Dr. Dog appears to strive for overall excellence. Last month the band released its sixth album, Be the Void. As is the case with previous discs, the consistent output contains kernels of pop brilliance: rock that extends the Beatles’ signature sound. The next step was to test the material on the road, and on Friday night, Dr. Dog stopped at Terminal 5 to work out new songs and revisit old ones in front of a sold-out crowd.
The set’s first two songs mirrored the new album’s first two, “Lonesome” and “That Old Black Hole.” Apropos of the band’s established formula, bassist Toby Leaman sang the first song while lead guitarist Scott McMicken sang the second. The trade off and interplay between vocalists is one of Dr. Dog’s more unique and compelling aspects. Leaman’s style is gruff and labored. He chugs through songs with physicality and maximum effort. Contrastingly, McMicken’s voice is brittle yet sweet. During a jubilant performance of “Shadow People,” the crowd pushed with its collective weight to hold up his relentless plea, “Where did all the shadow people go?”
The shadow people are unaccounted for, but the people who came on Friday night made themselves known. Many of those in attendance held on to secret (and not so secret) desires for favorite songs like a hopeful lottery-ticket holder. And the encore performance of “Heart It Races” looked to be a winner for many. But Dr. Dog possesses a deep catalog and most songs seemed to connect with the diverse audience. —Jared Levy
Grimes – Mercury Lounge – March 23, 2012
March 26th, 2012
Fiona Apple Returns and Gives All
March 26th, 2012Fiona Apple – Music Hall of Williamsburg – March 23, 2012
To say that the sold-out crowd on Friday night at Music Hall of Williamsburg was excited for Fiona Apple’s performance is an understatement. As the venue filled, fans were on a bit of an emotional roller coaster—frantic, eager, flabbergasted, ravenous—awaiting her first New York City performance in years. When the singer and her band appeared onstage, perhaps Apple sensed this loaded energy, negotiating with the crowd that if we refrained from chattering during the show (so as not to piss off fellow fans), she promised: “I will give you everything that I can possibly give you.”
Apple immediately made good on her end of the bargain, as a skittering drumbeat began the opening bars of “Fast as You Can” from 1999’s When the Pawn…, she attacked the vocals with intensity, danced frenetically over the urgent guitar line and then ran over to her piano to pound out the slow verses. Apple followed with a string of songs from the same album, performing powerful renderings of “On the Bound,” “Paper Bag” and “A Mistake.” In addition to these beloved older numbers, she performed several new songs from her forthcoming album (get ready), The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw, and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, including the slow-burning “Anything We Want” and the dramatic, cabaret-esque “Valentine.”
The vulnerability and personal insecurities Apple often explores in her music (coupled with some well documented public outbursts) often find the singer cast by the media as frail, fragile or volatile. However these simplistic renderings don’t give the singer enough credit for her own power and her authentic ability to express herself. To this end, Apple sang on Friday night with conviction, at times getting her point across with a clenched jaw, with her hands over her face, clutching her chest, wrapping her arms protectively around herself, looking at the crowd through wide, anxious eyes and, yes, occasionally smiling too—in command at all times, and decidedly not fragile. Following a satisfyingly intense performance of the crowd-pleasing “Criminal” and a lovely cover of country standard “It’s Only Make Believe,” we waited in vain for an encore, but it soon became clear. Apple’s performance was complete. She had rightfully given us her all. —Alena Kastin
Kasabian – Terminal 5 – March 22, 2012
March 23rd, 2012
The Black Keys – Madison Square Garden – March 22, 2012
March 23rd, 2012
Oberhofer – The Bowery Ballroom – March 21, 2012
March 22nd, 2012
Odd Future – Hammerstein Ballroom – March 20, 2012
March 21st, 2012
Born This Way
March 21st, 2012The Wood Brothers – The Bowery Ballroom – March 20, 2012
Some musicians just get it. You watch them and wonder if they were born with it. Chris Wood is one of those guys. Every time I see him play the bass, I’m stunned by his groovy abilities, and I wonder how much of that is nature and how much is learned. Watching him pair with his older brother, Oliver, to form the Wood Brothers, I get the impression that there is indeed something in those genes. Opening last night’s show at The Bowery Ballroom with “Postcards from Hell,” the brothers—rounded into a trio by Jano Rix on the drums and percussion—revealed their cards early on, matching greasy blues-folk-rock melodies with eloquent lyricism. It was clear that Oliver, sitting on a stool and spinning musical stories, is also one of those guys who gets it, effortlessly churning out guitar licks with just the right amount of twang and grit and singing with a clear, soulful voice.
The set drew from both the Loaded and the newer Smoke Ring Halo albums equally, with the crowd often singing along emphatically. There was a touching moment early in the set when they played “Lovin’ Arms,” a song the brothers penned after the death of their mother, coincidentally five years ago to the day. A new song, “Honey Dripping Off Your Spoon,” had a nice dual structure, with a slinky groove over the verse meeting a bluesy slant for the chorus. Oliver has a voice that draws others into perfect harmony while Chris’s bass playing starts at the toes and works its way up, until the whole body is moving.
At one point Rix, the kind of guy who does a little bit of everything in just the right amounts, left his drum kit and brought what looked to be a guitar, which he played like a bongo, up front for the covers portion of the show. You can tell a lot about a band by its covers, not just which songs they choose, but how they play them. The Wood Brothers’ canon included a fantastic version of “Buy You a Chevrolet,” which Chris bass-fiddled to a delightful pitch. The highlight, though, was when Oliver made a reference to the “other brothers” playing uptown this month and followed it up with the Allman Brothers Band classic “Midnight Rider.” The trio sang in perfect harmony and then Chris took the guitar solo with a bow and somehow made it his own. By show’s end, the audience demanded a second encore after the first failed to satisfy completely. These guys were making it look easy, like they were born to do it. —A. Stein
Photos courtesy of Mike Benigno | mikebenigno.wordpress.com
