Live Reviews

Screaming Females Shine at Siren Fest

Andrew Limbong :: Monday, July 19th, 2010 12:45 pm

At around 1:55 pm on Saturday, the sun was blasting down on Coney Island at full force, showing no signs of letting up. There was no mercy given by the scant clouds in the sky as they refused to take pity on any of the concert-goers and offer up some semblance of shade. With the unobstructed rays of heat pulsating down on my body, I knew that if I didn’t put some sunscreen on, the goddamn sun was going to melt my face. But then Screaming Females came up on stage and did it anyway. MORE »

Live Review: Delorean at Stuy Town Oval 7/7

Nick Nicoludis :: Thursday, July 8th, 2010 12:15 pm

I think that everyone living in New York can agree that free outdoor concerts are the best part of the summer, besides busted fire hydrants. Yesterday, while I was doing my daily internet cruising I discovered that the Spanish dance outfit Delorean were going to be playing a free show in a kind of bizarre setting: the middle of the giant apartment complex known as Stuy Town. Wandering through the maze of side-streets and buildings, I could hear music echoing off the walls and when I finally found the stage-which was not make shift like I had imagined it would be-I was amazed at not just the amount of people there, but the diversity. MORE »

Interview: Suckers Speak Out About Outsmarting Nature, Eating Steak, And Their Future Grammy Award

Amy Rose Spiegel :: Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 5:30 pm

suckers_062210_0010 To see the Brooklyn-based experimental-pop band Suckers live is to witness a spectacle, something between a gypsy show and the colorful cacophony of a rare bird exhibit at the zoo. Their sparkling record-release show at Music Hall of Williamsburg had the crowd, which included all of the band members’ parents, undulating and yelling along with the unruly chants and yips that punctuated nearly every song. Although the audience was very responsive to the music, it was hard to match the fireball energy of Suckers themselves as they whirled, howled, and shook their way through their set. MORE »

Northside Festival, Day Three: Fucked Up

Amy Rose Spiegel :: Sunday, June 27th, 2010 12:40 pm

I’d love to be able to claim Fucked Up’s Damian Abraham as a national treasure, but given how proud he is of his home city, Toronto, I doubt I’d be able to get away with the lie. At last night’s show at Barge Park, he must have hugged, spoken to, humped, or taken pictures with at least half of the audience, to our delight. It was nearly impossible to keep track of him as he careened through the crowd, sometimes while carrying a fan on his back. As with every Fucked Up show, last night’s performance was communal in the way that the best hardcore shows are, but imagine that feeling as led by a man who pulls stunts like pulling down his shorts to reveal a mangina. It’s definitely a unique experience. MORE »

Northside Festival, Day One: Of Wavves And Wonderment

Amy Rose Spiegel :: Friday, June 25th, 2010 9:50 pm

It’s impossible not to crowdsurf at a Wavves show, and last night’s performance at the Knitting Factory was no exception. Bodies were flying left and right, carried by a sea of eager hands and the fast-paced, fuzzy strains of Wavves’ signature brat-rock sound. At one point frontman Nathan Williams saw how much fun everyone else was having and jumped into the audience guitar in hand. Even this writer couldn’t resist a swan dive or three during the amazing new single “Post-Acid” off of the upcoming album King of the Beach. Seeing as there was much more to see and hear, I won’t go into all the gory, bum-grabbing details, as that might take all night and I have to go see Woods and Real Estate in a few hours. MORE »

Twin Shadow At Union Hall: Review

Johnny Sanford :: Friday, June 25th, 2010 12:45 pm

There’s been a throwback in Brooklyn. An 80′s New Wave Renaissance. Leading the way are bands like Hooray for Earth, MiniBoone, and new on the horizon is Twin Shadow. With a new album that’s been slated for the fall to be released on Terrible Records, the band’s sound is a potent mix of synth, keyboards, bumping bass and flashy guitar with the spastic guitar rhythms of 80′s greats like Duran Duran. The band came on at midnight this past Thursday in the tiny, cramped space in Union Hall and led the charge for the new-wave revolution. MORE »

Blitzen Trapper at Webster Hall 6/16

Amy Rose Spiegel :: Friday, June 18th, 2010 5:00 pm

Blitzen Trapper have become a full-fledged classic rock band. It was hard to pinpoint when that dawned on me as I watched them play on Wednesday night in NYC’s Webster Hall. Was it while I was salivating over the unarguably incredible guitar solos? Maybe it happened as I shook my head at the bland, fortune-cookie-vague lyrics, which were in the league of those trotted out by every band in the genre.

In any case, it was definitely confirmed when I looked out at the crowd, which consisted of good-natured dudes in Led Zeppelin t-shirts and their paramours. I think the new rule should be that when fans start showing up at your shows wearing the shirts of the band you most admire, you’ve probably ripped them off a little too hard. Unfortunately, that seemed to be the case when I saw Blitzen Trapper at Webster Hall on Wednesday night. MORE »

Matmos & So Percussion: Live At Le Poisson Rouge

Colm McAuliffe :: Thursday, June 17th, 2010 2:00 pm

Throughout their career, Matmos have constructed some of the most insane musical experiments ever put to record. The band have utilized the sounds of human skulls, latex fetish clothing, aspirin tablets hitting a drum kit from across the room, life support systems and the sound of a frozen stream thawing in the sun. Having also provided live backing for Björk, the duo’s latest experimental electronic collaboration is with New York’s So Percussion - a match made in contrapuntal heaven?

Live Review: Warpaint at the Knitting Factory

Danielle Johnsen :: Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 1:06 pm

After listening to Warpaint’s first EP “Exquisite Corpse” to the point of obsession, I was fearful to see them perform last night at The Knitting Factory. Sometimes bands are a pale imitation of their recorded selves live, but Warpaint exceeded my expectation and more with their impeccably tight and transcendental set, which had a sold out crowd entranced and dancing along. Coming off of their successful Bonnaroo set, the band stopped by NYC to play two sold out shows, and reintroduce themselves to the music scene that fell head over heels after last year’s CMJ performance. At the conclusion of last night’s show and their nearly ten minute jammy version of “Elephant”, which garnered them a spot on Pitchfork’s Top 100 of 2009, I felt like I was let in on a secret the whole music world will soon know about. MORE »

Central Park SummerStage: Living Colour Review

Johnny Sanford :: Monday, June 7th, 2010 11:15 am

As the weather warms up to a humidity level like that of warm jello covering our entire bodies, the perfect solution for the weekend warrior is to take a trip up to Central Park and chill out to live music and a cool breeze. I did just that this past Saturday, all to a soundtrack of Living Colour at Central Park SummerStage. MORE »

Review: BRAHMS At Pianos - 5/25

Gray Hurlburt :: Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 4:45 pm

View Brahms Photo Gallery

Photos by Xavier Aaronson

Last night was episode two of BRAHMS’ residency at Pianos, Manhattan, part of a three-date series stacked with a number of prodigious, electro groups, as well as some welcome surprises, such as the mellow rock group ARMS and the meat-loving rappers Das Racist. But yesterday will prove to be the most ebullient, when the red walls of the tiny back room shook with the music of Shadowbox, Gordon Voidwell, Das Racist, DJ Aaron Pfenning (of Chairlift fame), and the headliners, while people were packed within like jolly little sardines. MORE »

Pearl Jam Leaves Cloud of Ash Where MSG Once Stood

Johnny Sanford :: Friday, May 21st, 2010 12:00 pm

The lights go black. It’s been seven years since I’ve seen this “touring band,” and it might be another seven before I see them again. Added up, this might only be a thrice in a lifetime experience. I looked around at an incredibly diverse crowd of Girl Scout moms, frat boys, Wall-Street alcoholics, and aging grunge-sters all under the same roof to witness the chemistry of Pearl Jam. The energy is electric as they tear into their first song. MORE »

PiL: Live At Terminal 5

Colm McAuliffe :: Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 12:30 pm

The simple fact that the two of the most well-known PiL songs (‘This Is Not A Love Song’ and ‘Rise’) were the most tedious performances at the band’s first New York gig in aeons says it all. Playing to a highly reverent crowd, Johnny Rotten’s latest PiL are sonically punishing, spearheaded by Lu Edmonds glass-shattering guitar work which crashes into Rotten’s caterwauling wail to create a deafening, scree like wall of sound which was underpinned by the extremely taut and rigid bass and drums. This was retrofuturism in action - the sound of the future circa 1979.

Diane Cluck at Sidewalk Cafe, 5/11

Amy Rose Spiegel :: Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 3:35 pm

Diane Cluck is the kind of singer/songwriter that is hard to discuss. With many other bands, your observations are that they’re cool, or you like that one guitar riff, or something, but to watch Diane Cluck perform is to be completely speechless and attuned to trying to catch her quick lyrics as they slip past one another. Her guitar playing is nothing special, but her voice definitely is, and the poetry that that voice is pouring out is inimitably gorgeous. MORE »

Caribou: Live At The Music Hall of Williamsburg 5/7

Nick Nicoludis :: Tuesday, May 11th, 2010 2:30 pm

Some people think that you can judge the quality of show by the people attending, like how you can judge a book by its cover. Just as the latter statement is false, so is the former. When I arrived at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, an eccentric array of people were outside smoking between sets. This, and Caribou’s drastic musical metamorphosis had me excited and curious as to what the show would look and sound like. Would it just be Dan Snaith up there with a computer and some electronic gadgets or would they perform as a full band? After I decided not to hold any preconceived notions about what I was about to see, I entered the venue just minutes before Caribou took the stage. MORE »