Category: Pics

The Wordless Music Series continues to bring in great musicians to perform sometimes overlooked music. This concert showcased Colleen , a French minimalist that used several acoustic and electronic instruments to layer beautiful melodies.

Next up was a duo performance with Katya Mihailova and Colin Jacobsen. Although some songs were a little sloppy, there were some incredible moments with the experimental piano and violin.

You know by now that Beirut is an 8 piece ensemble headed by the very young Zach Condon. His foreign style of Gypsy music is always more enjoyable live so I found it odd to be sitting down to his music tonight. Although not as good as his Bowery show, the performance was lively and reached its apex when the crowd took to the aisles for the encore.

Pictures from the show.

Named after one of my favorite video games, Crystal Castles blips and bleeps along to spastic vocals to create addicting melodies. These guys will come to your house, throw your Nintendo system across the room to make crazy explosions of noise while they dance around the fire they just set in your basement. “Crimewave” is currently being played for the 15th time in a row here and everything in my life is starting to finally make sense.

Although I hate Webster Hall, I love Metric, and the light display that accompanied Leslie and the rest of Metric was fitting for their huge and matured sound. They played a great tight set to a jubilant crowd. This band has surely come a long way from their punky past to develop a well crafted sound.

Pictures from the show.

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/crystalcastles
http://www.ilovemetric.com

Peter Bjorn & John playing Roseland?! That’s a quick jump for a band that whistles and and shuffles along to their songs. But damn, do they do it well. Got super lucky to see this band at Maxwell’s the night before and it felt like a secret show just for their closest friends. The small venue created the perfect intimate setting making their songs even that more special. They had the lovely Nicole Atkins join in for “Young Folks”. As the night pushed on, the band became more alive making Peter jump around on stage, onto the speakers and into the crowd. Their soft sweet songs came out more powerful and with full force tonight.

Pictures from show.
http://www.peterbjornandjohn.com/

I was elated to find Vampire Weekend opening up for this great night of music. They were very tight and played very upbeat bopping songs. Although there is nothing that unique about their sound, they do play it very well and very enjoyable live.

Tonight however was about The New Pornographers and their intimate show at Bowery. I’m glad I got tickets to this rather than seeing them at Webster later in the month. The band came out in full force (sans Dan Bejar) and delivered an incredible show. I was happy to see Neko singing along with them but her complaining like a little baby about her monitors all night was distracting. Nevertheless, the magic happens when she sings along with A.C., and completes the bands sound. They rocked out some of their new stuff (which were a bit lengthier and jammier) and felt in all my outings for this band, tonight was one of the best. They had a lot more banter on stage between songs which i found really amusing but it made their set last nearly 2 hours. Nevertheless, their stories about how Spoon dissed them several years back was great and prompted several Spoon requests from the crowd. They played all my favorite songs and the best version of Bleeding Heart Show. An awesome night and the new album aint that bad.

Pictures from the show.

http://www.vampireweekend.com/
http://www.thenewpornographers.com/

Montreal’s Plants and Animals rocked out a great intro for tonight’s highly anticipated show. This trio had such an intense sound and was impressed as I explored some Polish beers.

It’s been a long time since Wolf Parade came through these parts, but I still play Apologies to the Queen Mary loudly. Their songs tend to be a bit more rushed live but it’s still an intense assault of sound. The night contained their mix of guitar and synth along with the dynamism between Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner distinct vocals. They played their hits over the very crappy sound system and had various technical problems. The very sold out crowd didn’t seem to mind but the power on stage wasn’t the same as the poor audio output and again the electronics distracted the overall sound live. Unfortunately they didn’t play Modern World, but did play 2-3 new ones that sounded really really good.

Pictures from the show.

http://www.myspace.com/plantsandanimals
http://www.subpop.com/artists/wolf_parade

Lotta music at Bowery tonight. Mobius Band started things off with its fusion of pop songs with electronic backgrounds. I enjoyed the compositions they created and excited to hear new things.

They primed the stage for the Baltimore collective Page France. Their music tells emotional stories over simple melodies. The imagery-heavy lyrics are captivating and are delightfully carried along with a warm voice and the occasional glockenspiel or banjo.

Bishop Allen released their new album at the show and eagerly played a lot of the new stuff, which is some of the best. They played a bunch from their various eps and took a few requests for their encore. Although the songs sound better on record, their live songs have a great sing along appeal and make you feel good listening to the band. They had a good crowd of young and old fans and felt there was a lot of musical and band chemistry on stage.

Pictures from the show.

Links:
http://www.mobiusband.com/
http://www.pagefrance.net/
http://bishopallen.com/