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!

Warpaint/Rewards/Family Band @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 12.02.10

Day two of December-appropriate swooning over dreaminess that makes us feel all kinds of warm inside commenced with Warpaint at the Music Hall of Williamsburg.

After eating a blissful dinner and getting peanut butter bombed at our favorite veg joint on Bedford, Wild Ginger we walked with bellies full (maybe a little too full) to the venue.

Got in early enough to see Family Band open up the show. They had a sedating, Mazzy Star quality to them: slow and oft times twangy guitars, melancholic almost monotone vocals but no umph. There seemed to be lack of sexy from the rhythm section (guess we been spoiled by Jenny Lee and Stella's magic combo, haha). Overall, they're a good band just weren't the flavor we savored at the moment. Snail fell victim to nail-biting anxiety because their songs felt sooo drawn out and sad. All we wanted were our hearts tickled!

Brooklyn band Rewards came out and got that engine running with a more upbeat, new wavey indie pop sound with an adorable singer who cooed into his mic, danced about the stage a bit and loved everybody. People were dicks to them and they were good sports. Fuck da hataz. Their set was really short compared to Family Band but maybe it felt that way because we enjoyed them more.

Warpaint came on stage to an enthusiastic and diverse (a hefty amount of brown peeps representing, finally!) full house. Setlist as follows (this is roughly the order of things): Bees. Stars. Composure. Undertow. Majesty. Burgundy (extended w/jam sesh). Warpaint. Elephants. Encore: Beetles (extended w/ jam sesh).

They were mesmerizing to watch. We swooned over our crushes Jenny Lee and Emily. Snail and I expressed our song love uniquely. I went wild over favorites: "Warpaint," "Burgundy" and "Elephants." Snail took leave of dancing for a lot of the show for fear of ralphing (damn you, peanut butter bomb and your irresistible goodness!) but let loose during "Beetles" as a last hurrah. In a A-train confession she told me the waterworks went on auto during her bittersweet jammy, "Undertow."

These ladies have a great dynamic: On the stage they're artful musicians who take what they do seriously, the quality of their output is imperative but equally don't take themselves too seriously. They fool around on stage, dance funny, kiss each other. It's evident they're having the time of their lives playing great tunes with their best friends every night. Nothing superficial seems to take precedent with them, it's extremely refreshing. They act how they want, dress how they want, they just don't give a shit what anyone thinks and we love them so much because of this.

We left the venue feeling all fuzzy and full of love, floating home -- Snail with her first vinyl purchase, Warpaint's The Fool, in hand with the most prize-winning smile I've seen on her in days -- sighing and singing praises over how awesome our birthday month has already been two days in.