Moonface / Talkdemonic / Tammar @ Bowery Ballroom 10.30.11

Spencer Krug and his impeccable hair

On a Mischief Night more akin to a sleepy Sunday night than the devilish eve before Halloween, Montreal's Moonface lured costumed customers away from the holiday shenanigans to Bowery Ballroom for some nice organ music fun.

Hitting the floor well after Tammar's set, we caught Talkdemonic and became instantly enamored. The Portland, Oregon instrumental duo dropped some weather appropriate electro-folk jams that reminded Snail of I See Rowboats (now sadly disbanded). While the music was enough to reel us in, the band had us completely at their unique stage presence. Witnessing our first viola rock-out courtesy of Lisa Molinaro, we wondered why other bowed string musicians didn't get down like that, too. Drummer Kevin O'Connor kept it classy, boldly jumping from stage to floor weaving through the scantily crowded audience playing a melodica.

Blame it on Sunday, the holiday, or the efficiency of Spencer Krug's unspoken strategy to revert to obscurity with this project (we'll go with the last one), the venue only grew to about half capacity by the time Moonface came on. Dimly lit with a fireplace going in the background, Spencer and his cohort, the amazing Mike Bigelow played a set similar to their previous shows at Envelope and Mercury Lounge with a few exceptions. No "Shit-Hawk in the Snow" left room for an unreleased song Spencer admitted rips off lyrics from Real Life's 80's classic "Send Me an Angel." Quite generously, we were also gifted with a very rare encore with solo Spencer doing a beautiful cover of Fine Young Cannibals' "I'm Not The Man I Used To Be".

Seemingly growing more chatty with every leg of this tour, Mr. Krug not only entertained audience shouts but indulged us with a couple of silly anecdotes. First he recounted their plan to dress up like Jim Morrison and a member of The Blue Man Grouponly to can the idea because they'd be too busy dying of laughter to play. Later, we learned about his first run in with American police on a highway all due to a driver taking a joke sign, "Mike is stuck in a Haagen Daz container, Send Help!", on the window back of the mini van too seriously.

Keeping his promise to reinvent Moonface as he goes (he's currently recording material with Finnish band Siinai for the next release), Spencer announced this would be last time we'd hear the contents of Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I'd Hoped played live. While its bittersweet to think we'd have to wait longer than a couple months to see him live again, after three times, it's easier to say goodbye to the old songs and hello to the next musical reincarnation of Spencer Krug.  --Cheep

Photo by Charles Steinberg via The House List

Cold Cave/Austra/Cult of Youth @ Bowery Ballroom 8.6.11

Photo by Dominick Mastrangelo via BrooklynVegan

We constantly dream how it would've been to see the likes of Depeche Mode, Siouxsie Sioux and the Banshees, Joy Division, New Order, Bauhaus and the Cure when they were young, inciting new wave dancey parties live in clubs and special to small group of romantic, dark and lonely weirdos. Literally babies then, we missed the boat and have been looking for the new wave dance party of our dreams ever since this music came into our line of hearing. Once upon a time, we had it in The Faint but their absence has left us thirsty. On this particular Saturday night libations flowed for what seemed forever with Austra and Cold Cave and we drank furiously.

Among the gays, girls, goths and everything inside and between, we stood on the floor, coming in during the last of Cult of Youth's loud yelps and fiddledidoos. Our brains were programmed for danceable electronics on this night so we dismissed them and their lack thereof accordingly. We soon fell out of attack mode with Austra's appearance -- or rather performance.

The band -- with the exception of harness booted keyboardist Ryan Wosniak -- walked on stage looking like the ultimate hipster caricatures. As it was the last day of tour, they threw together the last random bits of clothing they had left into less than stellar outfits. While their wardrobe choices were questionable, they hit the mark where it counts the most, musically. Singer Kate Stelmanis' has cemented herself as unique voice in indie with her fragile coos. In combination with the voices of Sari and Romy Lightman, the ladies sound like a chorus of wounded birds singing themselves into oblivion, tragic yet beautiful.

Bassist Dorian Wolf and drummer Maya Postepski add a new and welcome oomph to the set electro beats of the better songs off the Canadian band's debut Feel It Break. "Darken Her Horse," "Lose It" "Spellwork," "The Villain," and "Beat and the Pulse." Some may say "Lose It" is the single that made them but I offer up the sonically perfect and instantly contagious "Beat and The Pulse." You have to be soulless to not move to this joint.

In addition to the familar, they performed two songs we'd never heard, "Young and Gay" from the Beat and the Pulse EP and the unreleased "Habitat" our ears and feet quickly embraced them both happily.

At the end of their set, we had a decision to make: to stay or not to stay. Aside from a quick listen to Cherish the Light Years days before the show, we knew nothing of Cold Cave except that there was the potential danceyness to ensue. In the ever-present spirit of no regret, we vowed to stay on hopes of having a great time and if shit got boring, we'd leave and get some bubble tea at Just Sweet.

As usual we can't plan anything because it always ends up out window. Cold Cave had us the second they hit the stage after the shortest wait in between bands known to us. Into the darkness came drummer Alex Garcia-Rivera, singer Wes Einsold and synthesizer-er Ian Dominick Fernow, the latter two wearing the best leather jackets we'd ever laid our unworthy eyes on. Einsold intiated the set with a throwing of sunflowers into the crowd of which we were two of the lucky recipients. Then the music hit us.

It came in like the firestorm of Sarah Connor's dream, blowing away every layer of human leaving only our bare bones intact holding onto the lip of the stage. Two songs in and I thought we'd found our new The Faint. This was new wave party we've been dying to attend -- only we thought more people would be dancing instead of standing around oogling at the stage. We did our thing as hard as we could but it was nothing close to Fernow's moves. He thrashed about the stage, his body with no choice but to exorcise the abundance of energy and anguish and angst in this way. It was focan inspiring.

The band proved their worth and our brain signaled GET $5 DOLLAR BAND SHIRTS NOW! and during a slow jam we gave up front spots to venture out to the merch table and get what we wanted -- well, "needed" at this point. Unfortunately, the merch dude was away and would be back after their set so we went back inside danced to the encore in the back where the sound was better but it hurt to watch so many people not moving.

The second Wes uttered "This is our last song," we timed it so we'd head down toward the middle of it. We got our stuff and left, their hour long set leaving us enough time to still make it to Just Sweet for a bubble tea fix. Sipping on our iced teas with lychee jelly in awe of the night's happenings, we thanked the sons and daughters of 80s new wave for giving us something new to dance to.

Setlist and pics over at BrooklynVegan

Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit/Caitlin Rose/James Mathé @ Bowery Ballroom 5.28.11

Photo by WilyBrunette

While Snail was gallivanting at The Gorge getting her Sasquatch! on, I stayed behind to venture into NYC's misplaced August heat at the end of May to represent Cheep & Snail at Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit.

It's no secret I prefer to go to shows in good company but whenever that's not possible, I suck it up, go through the motions until the artist I'm there to see comes on stage. This time it was a little different. Having listened to very little of Johnny's music beforehand-- about 6 songs -- I didn't feel ready for this jelly. I was going mostly on Snail's love for him and my trust of her taste in awesomeness and the hope he would play the songs I knew so vaguely and this made me nervous, a wannabe fan surrounded by superfans can feel terribly lonely. Feeling this way and without Snail's excitement to feed off of, I thought twice about attending all together. However, in the spirit of no regrets and thinking about how awesome it feels to go see someone play with innocent ears and instantly be enamored, I forged ahead in the name of good music!

As expected I couldn't avoid the boredom in between performers. Anxiety crept as I was growing impatient by the minute, particularly when the Dave Grohl appreciation music stopped blaring from the speakers. Surrounded by pretty girls in pretty summer clothes talking to their equally attractive friends or boyfriends I prayed for time to fly and the openers to be a sweet relief from this lonely hell as opposed to fuel the fiery inferno. Thankfully, my prayers were answered.

Sussex Wit keyboardist James Mathé opened the show with a soulful slow jams that would be great to soundtrack a perfect Sunday morning, so chill. His velvety voice reminded me of a more refined Justin Timberlake at his best. Second act Caitlin Rose played country songs about New York City's greatness, a shitty packs of cigarettes and going out on the town and finding a man to love and a man to leave. I was mostly entertained by her sassy banter in between songs. Cursing like a sailor, making fun of herself and joking with the band and the guys in the crowd flirting with her-- she seemed like a dudely dame in her own right and that's always worth approval.

Johnny Flynn hit the stage to the crowd screaming "I love you"s so amped to see the handsome Brit play his brand of folk. Once he and the Sussex Wit began to play I was instantly drawn in, my boredom/lonely anxiety dissipated. My heart pitter-pattered at his multi-instrumental talent, switching from guitar to mandolin to trumpet to fiddle (!!!!) all set, this is always too much. My favorite moment of the night was Johnny's rendition of "The Water" or that-river-song-he-sings-with-Laura Marling as I knew it, with his sister Lillie. It was a thing of goosebump business and tears, their voices were just magical together. At the end the audience, who seemed to be in a state of loving awe all this time, was jolted into movement by "Eyeless in Holloway" and "Tickle Me Pink." Singing at the top of their lungs and dancing, some stomping, others doing the goofy Caucasian bounce it was fun to witness their elation.

There was a 2-song encore "Amazing Love" and "Leftovers" but I missed them driven out by the urgency to free my dogs from their painful bootie prison.

Going into this all anxious and innocent, I left feeling like a proud mama. The band's dynamic was great and I was awed by Johnny's focused and centered performance. He was hoarse, broke a mandolin string, and a cough made him forfeit a whole verse on "Churlish May" only made his work on stage more endearing. his awkward yet appreciative demeanor as the crowd yelled out hyped-up comments and belting his songs back at him was also super adorable.

I missed Snail like heck but thrived on the thought that I'd do it all again, with her, the fires lonely hell extinguished, reveling in Johnny Flynn's awesomeness together.

Warpaint/PVT/Family Band @ Bowery Ballroom 3.31.11

After a massive charging up of the vegan persuasion at Wild Ginger in Little Italy, we electrified Bowery Ballroom with our booty go-rounds for Warpaint, PVT and Family Band.

After a Grizzly Bear caught our eye at the bar, we enjoyed an awesome time during Family Band. The Brooklyn-based group led by husband and wife singer Kim Krans and guitarist Jonny Ollsin played their brand of intense mood rock that made us want to kick ourselves for dismissing them the last time they opened for Warpaint.

This great start to the night got us even more pumped to see PVT -- the Aussies formerly known as Pivot and still known as such in our brains-- again. We hadn't seen these guys since they killed us softly with their bleeps and bloops at Glasslands in '09, this was long overdue. A bit of worry lurked in the back of our minds since we weren't well-acquainted with the new album, Church with No Magic but on the contrary, the set was great, major p-control loss experienced, despite being restricted to tracks off Church... and nothing from their amazing first LP, O Soundtrack My Heart. According to synth wizard Dave Miller, who we accosted after the show, they were going to play a one oldie but time ran out. Guess we have to wait until these guys are headlining gigs to get the obscure jams, haha.
As time came closer for the L.A, ladies to hit the stage, people in a crowd started to get a bit unruly, many a peep hungry from a close up glimpse of the band. For a second we thought the bit of room we had to bust a move was going to be gone due to the madness, but the universe had other things in mind. By the time the ladies hit the stage we shifted about, put all disturbances aside and did our booty rolls, accordingly.

Warpaint live the second time around was not much different from December's show with a few exceptions: we got Theresa on drums and Stella guitar on opener "Set Your Arms Down," Snail's ability to keep composure (no pun!) lowered 80% from the last show, "Elephants" was the lone encore and "Burgundy" was sacrificed for the very gorgeous "Billie Holiday." This is where Snail and I put our arms around each other and swayed as we sang. We couldn't help it, this band just fills us with overwhelming love! That's what they do, the Warpaint, warm our hearts to the core.

All fuzzy inside we exited knowing that 1) Warpaint is a band we can not miss live EVER  and 2) I had the guts to talk to a PVT and will not being dying an old man filled with regret as of yet. That's Numberwang!

Wild Nothing/Abe Vigoda/Minks @ Bowery Ballroom 2.13.11

My first show of the year, I went alone to see Abe Vigoda at Bowery Ballroom on Sunday night. I have no idea if it was hotness withdrawal from being in Dominican Republic where the only p-control loss I experienced was while watching TV but Bowery was burning up that night. An astonishing array of old timey mustaches also made quite an impression. Oh yeah, and so did some pretty cool bands.

Opening band MINKS was pretty good. Strummy post-punk/new wave band had my attention but after a while all the songs started to sound the same. I'm still not sure if that's a bad thing or not.

As per usual, going to shows alone is boring particularly in between bands. Usually there's at least one person to talk to but not this time. The crowd was filled with hot unavailable men and BFFs unwilling to let anyone into their inside jokes and/or annoying the shit out of me (now I know what Snail & I put strangers through).

Before Age Vigoda went on I realized the guy from the couple next to me looked like a bizarro version of the band's drummer Dane Chadwick, instead of baby faced, adorable and a little awkward this dude was sexy and clean-cut. It was the best kind of creepy I've ever experienced.

By 10pm my LA boys were kicking out their brand of danceable, sometimes 80s flavored punky jams, including my favorite tracks "Throwing Shade," "Skeletons," and "Sequins." I danced much during these delightful 45 minutes or so but not as hard as anticipated due to my semi-low spirits. Dancing in public is never as fun without Snail. Co-dependency sucks. I did more than most of the crowd -- from what I could see 90% of people were just standing there -- oh well.

In other news, I had my eyes glued on bassist Dave Reichardt for most of the set. His playing's sick, I want to live in those basslines andihappentohavegiantcrushonhimpleasedon'tbegay. We made eye contact a few times, I know it -_- unless he was looking at bizarro Dane's bizarro hotness.
Abe Vigoda: super adorable, super fun. I want to do it again, with my buddy, thx.

When the fun ended I became bored again and after assessing that I didn't know any Wild Nothing songs and wasn't in the mood to get something new around a bunch of super fans, I walked out of Bowery Ballroom -- Charlie Brown sadness music playing me out -- and homeward, vowing I would never go to a show aloney again . This is complete bullshit, I will do it again. Nothing can stop me from seeing a show if I can help it, my love for bands is more powerful than any feelings of boredom and loneliness! Just have to deal with it, I suppose.

The Radio Dept./Braids @ Bowery Ballroom 12.01.10

Our three-day concert rendezvous began on Wednesday night with The Radio Dept. at Bowery Ballroom. Cheep and I had been away from each other due to Thanksgiving business so our excitement to reunite was over the top! We got to Bowery five minutes after The Radio Dept. started their set --it seems like we either get to shows too early or mid first song a lá Ratatat. Oh, well...

An unexpected tackled-to-the-ground incident at the Delancey subway stop left our hearts racing and minds confused, so it took us a little while to calm our innards and grasp that we were at the show. Regardless, soon enough, we were swaying to the dreamy guitar work of the Swedish dudes, who we believe perfectly illustrate that some bands are a product of their environment (like Tame Impala).  The Radio Dept. sound like a marshmallow floating on your hot chocolate as a snowflake falls on the ground on a perfect winter evening.

Our only complaint is how quickly the set swooshed by, just like listening to their albums, you are left wanting more.  At home we can loop the records but live we didn't even get an encore. What up with that, boys?

- It was a sadness to be heading home before midnight without listening to "It's Personal." But a joy to get "The Worst Taste in Music."

- Two heartbreaks: Not to get their sweatshirt calling our names from the merch table. Mourning the loss of Cheep's favorite little black cardigan which was snatched away at some point.

- A surprise? We found a couple's PDA cute, instead of gross, this music is perfectly appropriate for make-out sessions.

Here's hoping that tomorrow Williamsburg treats us a lot better than Manhattan did tonight. Dear Universe, no more Liz-Lemon-gets-spit-in-her-mouth-by-a-homeless-moments, please.

Murder by Death/Ha Ha Tonka @ Bowery Ballroom 5.4.10

Murder by Death (press still)

Like Every Time I Die last year, this is another show I "dragged" Snail to. I hadn't seen Murder by Death pretty much since Jackie moved about 2004-5ish mostly because I hadn't warmed up to the two albums after Who Will Survive... until last year. They're probably one of the bands I've seen the most live and I missed them. I needed to see Sarah working that cello like its her job and I had to swoon over Adam's every move.


Snail was pretty adamant about missing openers Ha Ha Tonka and i didn't care about them either so we ate dinner and stayed away from Bowery Ballroom as long as possible after doors but still managed to get there RIGHT WHEN THEY WENT ON. They made us feel like we were at a country bar complete with random woman stomping her drunken little heart out in her very own private hoedown. In this case, it was not a good feeling. at all.

After this boring earache, my babies came on stage and all was right with the night. It felt so refreshing to see them after such a long time I even sighed.

The first half of the set was riddled with songs from the new one Good Morning, Magpie. I'm glad though because I only really like one of the bunch they played. Then the rest of the set consisted of a mix from Who Will Survive and Who Will be Left of Them, In Bocca Al Lupo and Red of Tooth and Nail. No Like the Exorcist, But More Breakdancing. at all. I was a bit saddened. They left me yearning for anything from that album and "Theme (for Ennio Morricone)" but its alright, I got my fill.

That night I just wanted drink a bunch of whiskey and sing the songs I love obnoxiously loud. Didn't do any of the first part but a lot of the second haha. I even got shiver down my spine during "Ash" and "End of the Line". Adam's voice just tapped my bottom my like so! But seriously, it's the combo of his voice and the narrative that blow my mind. Mr. Turla's old timey legends of zombies and revenge make MBD for me...and Sarah's everything.

All was awesome and now, after all is said and done I'm craving that (figurative) whiskey soaked sing-a-long once again.