The Triumph of Tired Eyes

It was a stormy night in Japan when a shiny black car pulled up next to a huge squid fishing ship. The vessel was preparing for the long voyage to Canada, loading its cavernous cargo bays with pungent buckets of squid meat and squid bait. Quietly, four shadowy figures stole out of the car, shielding themselves against the torrential downpour. They exchanged meaningful glances, and hid themselves in an especially large and especially fragrant container of loose tentacles which was soon loaded on board. As the ship pulled out of port another black car, carrying the deadly assassins of the cunning Yakuza organization, squealed to a halt on the pier. The nefarious characters contained therein jumped out, shaking their fists at the departing vessel and screaming obscenities into the howling wind. Aboard the ship, draped in sticky tentacles, the four young men smiled: their journey had begun.
Tokyo Police Club are simply great and play a solid live show. They’ve matured and have become more solid since last year’s CMJ tour. Their live set was surprisingly amazing.

Opener’s Ra Ra Riot played an equally great set of catchy, short & sweet songs that get stuck with you til the next day. Losing their drummer John Pike earlier this year was shocking and came right on the verge of their breakout of their recent record. They’ve decided to move on and tonight they showed that they mean business.

Pictures from the show.

Links:
http://www.rarariot.com/
http://tokyopoliceclub.com/
great music video

Having The Teenage Prayers, The Big Sleep, and The Hold Steady made this one of the better nights for the free shows at Prospect Park . It was kinda neat to see The Big Sleep play outdoors to such a large crowd. They shyed away from their more vocal laden songs and focused on their more successful instrumental explosions of sound. Their songs are better live and the outside air trembled with them. They played a bunch of new tunes which I enjoyed and talked to Sonya after the show and she tells me a new album is in the works.

America’s Bar Band The Hold Steady drew a very large crowd including his parents to a perfect Brooklyn night. This Brooklyn-via-Minneapolis group headed by Craig Finn played an entertaining set of sing-along anthems to a majority white fratty crow. The music is catchy but it’s Craig who controls the show. His narrative tales tell of the mundanity of modern life, but they throw in some rage and chunky guitar riffs to a guarantee a good time over a few (more) beers.

Pictures from the show.

Links:
http://thebigsleep.net/
http://www.theholdsteady.com/

These twin sisters from Alberta Canada recently sold out a bunch of large venue shows in support of their new album The Con. Luckily they booked a more intimate show at Brooklyn’s Southpaw to play their pain and guilt ridden songs. Despite all the emotion in the air they were very playful on stage and continued to interact with the crowd with funny banter and very random stories. Although the new album isn’t as impressive as 2004’s So Jealous, I really enjoy the overall mood of the record and there are some incredible songs on it. However, you can sense the wimpiness on a few of the tracks which can probably be traced back to their new producer Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie.

With no opening band, the duo started the show with the energy high and played for over and hour touching all of their albums. The place was very crowded and despite the poor flow of the crowd I managed to get to the front. Their sound man did a great job making sure their entire set sounded perfect. The old songs were just as energetic while the new ones got a welcome response. Wish they would stick to the more intimate shows.

Pictures from the show.

Links:
http://www.teganandsara.com/
some great acoustic videos

A perfect sunny day to host a free day of killer music from a biodiesel powered stage. Co-hosted by Brooklynvegan, the line up included highlights OCDJ, O’Death, The Besnard Lakes, Land Of Talk, and Les Savy Fav. The crowd was great and some of the art sculptures were intriguing. It was also a good platform for some public awareness on some global issues and a great day for some live tunes.
But let’s also talk about the rock n’ roll! I liked Land of Talk before today but left the night absolutely loving them after seeing them perform live. This trio from Montreal, Canada play some infectious post-punk rock that is sometimes aggressive and sometimes quietly poignant. Singer Elizabeth Powell is a bit of a crazy on-stage and you can never predict what she’ll say next. This level of uncertainty comes through her lyrics and driving melodies. A band to keep an eye on.

But the crowd’s energy was saved for Les Savy Fav and the eccentric lead singer Tim Harrington. The first song had bassist Syd Butler with his baby strapped to him with huge earphones while he played. The music has lots of energy – but it’s Tim’s antics that make the show hugely entertaining. He is like a huge gorilla with the wide eyed openness of a baby seeing the world for the 1st time. He constantly changed clothing between songs adopting hilarious persona while ranting on stage. He went into the crowd several times, singing on top of parked van for a song and another time blowing bubbles without the aid of the plastic blower. Although the songs are ok on record, it’s better seeing this band live. The crowd erupted when they played “The Sweat Descends” and rightfully so as the song packs a punch. The bassist mentioned that they wouldn’t play the song anymore live which is just silly as it’s one the few great songs they have. Later they play Bowery for 20 bux later which is just insane but I’m going to see if their shtick and punky songs translates to a larger stage.

Pictures from the show.

Links:
http://www.landoftalk.com/
http://www.lessavyfav.com/
http://www.solar1.org/education/citysol/

Benjy Ferree played a good set and much more vibrant live than on recording. although I’ve never been totally sold on this guy, he has good stage presence and enjoyable story telling songs.

Bowery was sold out for Mirah’s celebration of lo-fi songs. Her emotionally honest songs translated really well live and despite the venue, felt very intimate. She played a wide array of songs aross her several albums and even gave us a new one. Her indie-rock songs can be both touching and humorous and her sensible guitar playing is a perfect union. She played a “game” with the crowd where we had to guess what bug she was singing about in some of her lyrics. However the highlight was when she decided to play one of her remix songs live without the aid of electronic equipment. It was a perfect ending to the melodic night.

My pictures from the show.

Links:
http://benjyferree.com/
Mirah: myspace