Tame Impala/Yuck/Yawn @ Webster Hall 4.25.11

Photo by Kenny Shin

While Ron Paul supporters got high on some politickin' about a presidential bid or some shit in Webster Hall's basement, we chilled out maximus to the stoner hippie stylings of Tame Impala upstairs in the Grand Ballroom.

Chicago band Yawn was already opening the show when we got in. All I remember, unfortunately, was thinking the singer was cute and the drums were nice and dancey.

During the intermission, we got all soul-searchy and weird pondering about when we would stop checking out new bands and seeing them live and got a little grossed out on the prospect of being in our 50s and still raging at indie shows... then Yuck came on. Earlier than scheduled, even, and we hope this didn't mean their set would be longer than necessary (it wasn't).

This band sounds a bit Pixies-ish and like they belong doing guest spots on '90s teen dramz like Beverly Hills 90210. Aside from this there was some denim on denim, Poppy hair and an Acapulco bata (we like the word "bata"). I want to say we were kind of tricked into enjoying their set -- we weren't in the mood but in order to not get bored we listened and swayed to the songs which really weren't so bad, especially one song called "Fat Pussy."

After the torturous but inevitable worst 30 minutes ever --the ones before a headlining band comes on-- Kevin Parker and co. brought their cute bare feet to the Webster Hall stage for the first time in NYC since November's Bowery Ballroom show. For an hour and a half we shook, shimmied and swayed as they hopscotched through jams from Innerspeaker, played a phenomenal cover of Massive Attack's "Angel"--amped to the appropriate volume level for once-- and topped with what drumma Jay Watson called a "decadent medley, like a slice of decadent cake" to which Kevin replied saying "la torta" in Spanish and our ears perked up at the sound of our native language being spoken by an adorable Aussie in an enviable cheetah shirt. This decadent torta consisted of "Lucidity" and parts of "Skeleton Tiger" and "Half Glass Full of Wine." I expected "41 Mosquitoes.." would be thrown up in that slice but nay. No encore, either, since those things tend to get lame according to Kevin Parker but worry not, he assured they were to return soon enough to satiate our needs. That said, I'm just putting it out there: next time give us some "41 Mosquitoes..." and "Sundown Syndrome," grcs.

Homeward bound, we guzzled black cherry sodas and talked about many a thing as usual, including Snail's accidental eavesdropping on a disgusting post-concert conversation, and wrapped up another night of doing what we do until we can't handle people all up in our auras no more: getting our minds blown by our favorite artists live.

Peter Hook presents 'Unknown Pleasures' @ Webster Hall 12.03.10

Our three-day liaison with divine live music came to an end Friday night via Joy Division/New Order bass magician Peter Hook & band's magnificent performance of JD's gem of an album, Unknown Pleasures.

Despite having no real expectations, we were nervous about the show. "For the love of Ian Curtis just let this be as awesome as we think it will be!" we prayed. Just as it was sent to the cosmos, it was done.
They prefaced the set with a short documentary about the Factory Records/Hacienda golden era in Manchester with a main focus, of course, on Joy Division and New Order. Initially, the mini-screening had technical difficulties and people acted stupid and impatient yelling out stupid shit, we just didn't want them to give up and NOT show it! After a few minutes all was fixed and we were pleased.

Then we met our maker.
Hooky and the guys walked on stage and shit got amazingly surreal. Peter Hook's my favorite member of Joy Division. He plays my favorite parts in their songs and I'm in love with his 1979 self. Now he's old and I'm around the age he was when he was in Joy Division, a little bit weird. So now I have an old man crush on him because he's still so awesome, haha. Not only this but we were about to listen to a bunch of songs we never in our lives would ever hear live. EVER.

The set was Unknown Pleasures set on shuffle plus "Atmosphere," "Transmission" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart." I went nuts during "Wilderness" my favorite JD song ever ever ever. The crowd got mad rowdy during "Transmission" jumping and singing "DANCE! DANCE! DANCE! DANCE! TO THE RADIO!" at the top of their lungs it was glorious. The crowd really got going during the finale, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" doing all of the above and moshing with the biggest smiles.

The musicians he chose to back him up were choice. His son, Paul, who had primary bass duty, had our jaws on the floor. Hooky the Second was slappin' da bass with his quick and fancy fingerwork, just like his papa. Ripped it the hell up! Hooky the First had his bass strapped on but he still can't play and sing at the same time so with vocals to take care of, Papa Hook just laid down what I'd like to believe are his most favorite parts to play (rock poses and all, hehe) and accented Paul's rhythm. Double bass work on these tracks, a fucking dream come true.



As far as Hooky's vocals, he brought his non nonsense swagger and killed it. It was relieving he wasn't trying to be Ian Curtis and that he also didn't look like some kind of caricature up there. He sang and played the songs, he didn't talk much. The couple times he smiled it was joking around with his son after Baby Hooky's bass fucked up and had to use the ugly replacement and maybe at the end.
The whole time Snail looked upon the Hooks with her famous face of disgust. This is mainly because they're so good it's retarded. We "hate" because we love so much!

What was literally disgusting was the amount of people player hating on Hooky for taking this show on the road. Bunch of shit-stirrers refusing to support the project, crying out shit like "HOW DAAAAAARE HEEEEE?" and "IAN CURTIS WAS JOY DIVISION!" assuming Peter was defiling the memory of the patron saint of post-punk Ian Curtis. We feel bad for those people really, missing out on a great show because they can't get over their purist bullshit.

To us, the only people with the right to do it are the surviving members of Joy Division. Peter Hook is one of the three. Out of the three, Peter was the best suited to pursue this because to us, his basslines make this album. I pay more attention to Peter's input on that album than Ian's singing and lyrics. Anyhow, Peter Hook did fans a favor by taking this risk, he made happen what Ian Curtis sadly yet selfishly took away from their US audience: a chance to hear a Joy Division set live.

At the end Peter Hook gratefully exclaimed, "Thank you so fucking much!" He seemed taken aback by the overwhelmingly positive response :) NO, HOOKY, THANK YOU FOR BEING SUCH A GENIUS ;_;

Drunk with happiness upon exiting Webster Hall just as the club kids were making their way inside, we floated home once again with a loss for words and brain seepage with ideas about our distant futures. We had to conserve our ticket stubs for our grandkids to see. We'll tell them how Peter Hook gave new life to these timeless Joy Division tracks so long ago and how awesome it was. They'd probably stop paying attention half way in and call us weird but we'd be too busy reliving the moment to notice.

Four Tet/Jon Hopkins/Gold Panda @ Webster Hall 10.22.10

Kieran grinning as crowd gives him some love

CMJ weekend opened with us high-fiving the Universe for dropping some of the UK's premier electronic producers into one show for our enjoyment.

...Only we wouldn't know the full extent of this show's awesomeness until after days, even weeks! after.

The Cheep, the Snail and the Moz entered Webster Hall in the middle of Gold Panda's set to find the hooded beat architect working his science in front a starry black backdrop and blue lights --an ambiance perfect for this lineup of dudes with some dope chilled-out, oft times whimsical dance tracks worthy night listening in their repertoire.

Gold Panda's set was good, real good but we were all some kind of tired and/or sick mode and our anxiety to get the Four Tet set on and over with took away from that a bit. This feeling could have been averted if we would've just listened to him prior like we intended because his debut album Lucky Shiner is amaziiiiiiiiing! WE KNOW THAT NOW!

Jon Hopkins took the stage shortly after, also blind to his greatness this ehh feeling continued. To remedy, Snail and I started joking around about being T-Rex and which college students in audience we would violently massacre with our giant tails, trillions of sharp teeth and abnormally short arms. In the midst of our way too hilarious hateration, we got shut right the eff up when Hopkins started playing "Wire" as Snail shed light on previously. WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-?! These are the moments we live for.

When Jon's portion of the dance party ended, his Four Tetness, Kieran Hebden helped him get his stuff packed up and we caught a rare glimpse of musician BFFness in action, smiles and all, and melted accordingly. Then T-Rex rage returned when a fanboy ran up to the barricade to "exchange info" with Mr. Hopkins. Jon was being super sweet and appreciative so we had a problem with this for him haha. "LEAVE HIM BE!" we thought. The next day in fangirl hindsight we thought "ZOMG HE WAS SO CLOSE TO US! BAH! ;_;" and so it goes.

Herr Hebden, a man of few words and tomfoolery came on and immediately did his thing. Snail died a couple of times minimum, for he is the wind under her adoring wings and we danced and danced to tracks from There is Love in You (fuck yea "Angel Echoes" "Love Cry" and "Plastic People") and remixes. We were sent up for a twirl when he did his mix of Rocketnumbernine's "Matthew and Toby"! Major goosebump business. At least in our corner of the crowd, it seemed as though we were the only one who even knew the track and went nuts. It was the best do-over, evarrrr.

Believe it or not I'm walking on air/ I never thought I could feel so freeee

What did we learn from this experience:

-Four Tet killed our souls again cementing his place in repeated attendance at his shows for life.

-Jon Hopkins is mind-blowing and kinda looks like Jonny Greenwood.

-Should probably check out more artists before seeing them at shows so we don't become impatient dum-dums.

-College kids easily mistake a dance concert for a rave and expect people to be "rolling face" get upset when no one is and look awfully sad when they are.

-We hate (most) people (until proven awesome) and exorcise this in ridiculous great (to us?) ways.

Listen to Gold Panda's album Lucky Shiner here
Look at Jon Hopkins' gorgeous website here

Read about our first, figuratively ultra-violent and partially regrettable experience seeing Four Tet here

Stay tuned for the conclusion of our Epic October/British Invasion saga featuring Everything Everything!

Caribou/Emeralds/Arp @ Webster Hall 9.22.10

Caribou ripping it up

C&S kicked off this month’s series of concerts dancing our souls away at Caribou on Wednesday.

After a dronefest via Arp and Emerald’s sad wizard rock session, we were treated to Dan Snaith and co.’s splendid range of psychedelic rock outs and electronic bangers, all amped up to 5000.

They opened with “Kaili” which got loud by the time it was too late (soundguy, we’re looking at you!) and killed us with serious movement-inducing, drumtastic album spanning tracks, mostly from the lastest LP Swim. Drummer Brad Weber, ripped it up so hard we didn’t know what to do with ourselves.

Dear Drummah, thanks for high-fiving us. Have you ever considered being a part-time competitive drummer? You’ve got just the right amount of awesome to win such contests. Love, Cheep & Snail.

For a while it seemed the only people grooving along with us were the people in the middle and the dude to our left but when “Odessa” started bumping its like the whole venue woke up. It was the perfect prep for the encore where everybody got down like it was the last dance on earth.

For a hour and 15 minutes we twirled in amidst sweet sounds and band crushin’ (Raincoat a.k.a Ryan Smith, now we’re looking at you.) This show is yet another giant sigh to add to 2010’s list of greatness.