Category: Music

OK, I’ll be honest. I really only wanted to go see Dirty on Purpose and have an excuse to check out the Brooklyn Masonic Temple. The building interior was unfortunately uneventful and was also a poor place to hear music. It may have added to DOP’s crappy performance but these guys play more bad shows than good. I still don’t understand why they can’t translate their shoe-gaze compositions live. blagh.

Not sure why Band of Horses is still so popular considering their new album was such a snooze-fest. Although their live set was more enjoyable than listening and turning off their music at home, they didn’t come close to reproducing their production sound live. The Funeral songs were good but the evening quickly all started to sound the same. I still don’t understand why they need 7 people on stage. I guess so they can cover a bunch of Chicago and JJ Cale songs.

Pictures from the show.

http://www.dirtyonpurpose.com/
http://www.bandofhorses.com/

After seeing this band live, the fact that they come from Pennsylvania and called Illinois kinda makes sense. The music is a bit unpolished and all over the place, but they have a banjo and are entertaining on stage. They remind me of a jangly version of Menomena before they got all too serious.

Nada Surf has been one of those bands that have spent a long time in my life. Releasing numerous addicting records and seeing them live for almost a decade, they continue to impress me. However, I am pretty disappointed with their new release “Lucky.” The album is full of restlessness and loneliness but without the bright catchy instrumentation to bring you back around. Although the songs sounded better live, those were the slowest parts of their set, and nearly bored me to leave but luckily they bounced back with some of their better crafted pop songs. And then the band played along with a dancing crowd onstage, which seems mandatory these days at Bowery.

Pictures from the show.

http://www.illinoistheband.com/
http://www.nadasurf.com/

Unfortunately I missed Parlor Mob. Nicole’s boyfriend is in the band and they deliver a powerful Zeppelin rock.

I knew he looked familiar but I realized too late that the opening band had Craig Wedren of Shudder to Think. The songs were lively and interesting and made me really miss his old band.

Putting out one of my favorite and most underrated album in 2007 Nicole Atkins deserved to play to a sold out crowd at Bowery. This Jersey girl is finally back from North Carolina where she fine tuned her music and vocal influences. The most recent time I saw her was at tiny Maxwell’s singing along with Peter, Bjorn & John. However, now armed with her new album “Neptune CIty” she filled every corner of the club with her powerful voice. Her soulful songs were absolutely captivating and it’s one of those shows that make Bowery a magical place for an hour. She sang every song passionately and with her sultry looks it’s hard not to fall in love. Musically an amazing and memorable show. You just have to see this girl in a live setting. I mean, check this performance out and you’ll realize that this girl is headed for much bigger things.

Pictures from the show

http://www.nicoleatkins.com/

Die Romantik. Sounds like its gonna be a bad emo-cut yourself-terrible haircut-wimpy kind of band, right? The gothic elaborate light set up in my beloved dark Mercury Lounge didn’t help either. But then they started to play some music and I was hooked. Sure this Brooklyn trio weren’t perfect but something about how everyone sang and combined washed out guitar with jangly keys and drums was moving. The music and the stage captured a unique mood for the night. You may be distracted by the lead singer’s good looks but I’ll be intrigued where these guys will go next.

The kinda legendary Apes & Androids brought their glam-rock epic metal opera to celebrate their record release party. Before the show I chatted with the parents of the guitarist in the band. It was kind of funny to talk about Brian as a normal kid growing up in small town when in about an hour he would transform himself into a theatrical rock god. Hanging in the background were monster heads whose eyes lights would light up during the show and sometimes talk to the crowd. It’s like shrinking down an Iron Maiden concert down to show in your basement. Sure the songs are too synthy and silly but these guys always put on an energetic and lively show. It’s hard not to laugh and cheer during their set. Surprisingly, there was no encore which I always look forward to, but they did have crowd surfing drummers.

Pictures from the show.

http://www.dieromantikmusic.com/
http://apesandandroids.com/

A cool name for an band != good music. Openers April March made me want to put my head under a pillow. And then under another pillow.

Three cute girls from brooklyn all playing vintage keyboards?! I may have accidentally wished for this to happen in one of my dreams. Au Revoir Simone were very nervous on stage as they also seemed surprised to play Bowery Ballroom. It took a lot of effort to get into their hypnotic and bouncy tunes. However their “dance” songs made them and some of us to bop up and down. Cheesy lyrics + Casio blips + cute nerdy girls = overly simple but catchy tunes.

http://www.aprilmarch.com/
http://aurevoirsimone.com/