Apostle of Hustle played Mercury Lounge – review
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I missed the first of the many Apostle of Hustle NYC shows for Feist, but my friend (and fellow vinyl scavenger) Borchers fills us in:
Photo: Sam Horine
Apostle of Hustle played the first of their 3-week bi-city residencies last night at Mercury Lounge. Wednesday they fly to Chicago to play their other residence, Schuba’s Tavern. After I missed the first opener, Murder Mystery, and didn’t pay attention to the second, Ola Podrida, this Broken Social Sceneside-project (that’s an understatement, this is AoH’s second album tour) started out cool and calm, but then rocked out to their album’s title track, “National Anthem of Nowhere.” Apprently there was a scene at the foot of the stage when frontman Andrew Whiteman became a little too enthused in his drumming and knocked a tambourine into his red wine; at which point he requested a new glass (plastic cup) of “le Rouge.”
More after the jump.
Photo: Sam Horine
The band, obvious in their new obsession with Latin music, played a mostly instrumental “Fast Pony For Victor Jara” next. Whiteman was concerned about his audience’s attention span, so he gave us a story to think about while listening. Imagine a pony express rider, with one saddle bag full of pot, the other full of ecstacy, riding into town holding in one hand, the head of Stephen Harper (the Canadian prime minsiter), and in the other, the head of George W. This is what he told us was the American version of his story.
Somewhere near the end of the first set, the band decided to decorate the stage with a string of flags, which reminded me more of a street fair than the intended fiesta vibe (I could be mistaken). For the set break, rather than scurrying to the back of the room, the trio enjoyed a beer together at the front of the stage before rejoining for a couple of last numbers.
Photo of Apostle of Hustle playing the Primavera Festival in Spain by Michael Morel.
The show was solid; the venue looked kind of empty, as a lot of fans must have been watching fellow Broken Social Scene member Feist at Town Hall. I was also pretty dissappointed with there being no merchandise for sale. But the show was a good time, I plan on catching them again before they finish their tour of duty. They will be back at the Mecury Lounge the next 2 Mondays, and are playing the Canada Day show at Central Park Summer Stage on June 24th.
Mercury Lounge
June 11, 2007
