Seen a couple great shows in NYC the last month and just wanted to share?
BEANS, FOURTET, BATTLES, AND PREFUSE @ North Six
BEANS is fun live. He dances great, fantastic performer. Not really my
bag, but great fun to see live. FOUR TET blew me f*cking away. I was
scared he was just going to DJ or something. He had two laptops and a ton
of manipulative gear and a sampler bad. He flipped out and it was amazing.
Great, layered jams that went from complete noise to precision typing in an
instant. Then he started playing some of his jams from the last album and
really blissfully tweaked them. Incredibly impressive performer. BATTLES
was formed by the lead dude from Don Caballero, one of the greatest
math-rock bands of all time. Battles takes it a step further. The drummer
from Helmet keeps a inhuman tightness and the two lead guitars often play
keys and guitar at the same time. They are truly a phenomenal band to watch
perform. Amazing stylistic combination of math-rock, psychedelic space, and
operatic metal tightness. Luckily all said acts were fantastic, because
PREFUSE really sort of blew chunks. He came off like a pompous dude and he
used a live drummer that made his songs sound like soft jazz or something.
He had some hard acts to follow, and he didn?t. Even without him it was a
successfully eclectic and high-quality show.
THE BOOKS AND GREG DAVIS WITH SOMEONE @ Knitting Factory
Opening for the Books was Greg Davis with someother guy (if anyone can fill
me in one who this man was and what he does, please give it up). I?ve seen
Greg Davis do some really overly avant boring stuff, and wasn?t planning on
seeing anything that would keep my interest, but holy smokes? two men
slowly layering live samples of random little toys into a swirling,
meaningful snowstorm of gorgeous sound. Amazing video accompaniment really
helped, but I was truly floored by this performance. It reminded me that no
matter how many times a style has been done, when done right, it lights you
up. This was such a performance. Truly transcendent.
I was a little hesitant for the Books, not sure if they could pull it off
live. It was only their fifth show! Set up was one Book on guitar and
vocals, another Book on cello, and a nice lady on vocals and violin and
organ. It took a couple songs for them to get their sound together, but
when it did they really, really pulled off the tracks from the new album
(which I love after having seen the live show, not so much before). The
cello playing was of a surprisingly high caliber, the sampling of voices was
great live because they mixed it up live, playing different samples, and
moving things about. They also had video accompaniment which was very
witty.
BOOM BIP AND MICE PARADE @ Knitting Factory
I?m just going to say that Boom Bip is great on album, but live it was a
poorly put together ?rock? outfit that really failed to breath any soul into
Boom?s generally wonderful music (though I don?t like the last LP too much).
Incredibly disappointing, I will stop there.
MICE PARADE? he comes out and sits on a wooden box and start banging this
amazing south American rhythm. He?s joined by a drummer, a synth player,
two guitarists, a vibraphonist, and the lady from mum. Oh my god. I cannot
tell how amazingly precise and beautifully they recreated Mice Parade?s
studio work. My girlfriend had never really heard them and was completely
floored. One of the best shows I?ve seen all year. The sounds were
absolutely beyond perfect. Mr. Mice Parade is a truly inventive and
remarkable performer. I had tears in my eyes!
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