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Download “Documents” by The Lisps | Friday night was the premiere of The Lisps‘ musical, Futurity. By 10pm the bar at the Zipper Factory was filled with people waiting for the doors to the theater to open. Observing the impressive turnout, I overheard a friend of the band say, “I feel happy for them”, which I’m pretty sure was a prevalent thought in the room. It’s not very often that an indie band from Brooklyn puts a musical on.
Not that anyone’s even awake today, but here’re a few more presents. Dark Dark Dark’s set at Union Pool was much more fun than the relatively stiff one at Cake Shop. The last song they played was “Flood”, which isn’t on their album, but was performed for a forthcoming Daytrotter session, I hear. Nona got off the stage and joined the audience for a massive bout of swaying and singing. The video of this, and “The Benefit of the Doubt”, which features a few heart-gripping cello lines, are after the jump; as is ”True Believers All” by the Loom, whose front man John Fanning was celebrating his 28th birthday that night.
Download “Colors”| It may have been the little-loved Tuesday, bastard child of the week, all yuckified with snow-turned-slush, and a flurry going on still, but Dark Dark Dark played to a Cake Shop basement that was as full as it was the night The Dodos played their secret show there. Most of those present were pirates and vagabonds and people of that nature who I imagine have infiltrated the city of New York for years, or perhaps they had only momentarily gotten off their travels for drinks and music. The band knew their names, and they knew the lyrics to all of the band’s songs. Some of them danced. They were all friends. It made me feel like I was crashing someone else’s party, but it was a good party. Move onward for video!
A Hawk and a Hacksaw may have been without The Hun Hangár Ensemble last night, but the outfit of four induced a lot of dancing, feet stomping and clapping at (Le) Poisson Rouge, a venue which, now that I’ve been there twice in different settings, is really going to be a gem for affordable live music of superior quality. Jeremy Barnes looked all the more New-Mexico-meets-Hungary with his roguish mustache (Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood), and he freely took a full swing at label mates Beirut, members of which were present amongst the audience, apart from violinist Kristin and drummer Nicholas, for abandoning the Mexico and “selling out” by moving to New York. When two enthusiastic (and adorable) Mexican brothers in the front revealed their identity, Barnes called theirs the “Old Mexico” and then the “Original Mexico” of which the new was once a part, which prompted Beirut’s accordionist Perrin Cloutier to yell that they were still run the same way anyway. Barnes asked him if he was the governor.
While the New York Society for Ethical Culture was a cozy home to the Wordless Music Series in its beginnings, two of my favorite bands to watch live—Beirut and The Books—seemed to lack a tiny grain of their usual luster in that otherwise endearing church; especially in comparison to Bowery Ballroom, where I’d seen Beirut last and saw The Books next. So the move to St. Paul the Apostle Church later that year was a definitely delightful treat of acoustic magnificence, but this year the series has adopted a new home anyway: the new and stylish (Le) Poisson Rouge, which hosts three of the five performances from the summer season. After all, owners of the venue described in one event listing as “Greenwich Village’s latest house of ill repute” are both classical musicians, so not only has the space been renovated with a meticulous eye on sound design, but the goal of broadening the demographic, or “psychographic”, of the classical genre puts the performance space and Wordless Music Series on the same mission.
I got my first taste of the space at a Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society performance on a rainy Wednesday last week. Watch the video, and continue with my findings:
There’s an intoxicating brand of punk that originates from the depth of folk, and that has so far been of brilliance specific to Slavic boisterousness. New York’s immigrant phenomenon Gogol Bordello isn’t quite the prime model of this, but to the band’s biggest advantage is the history that runs through the blood of its core. With chaotic globalization in full swing, one culture’s aged tradition is now a crazed discovery in some other, and everyone can be sure that New York will get at least a sip of it all. My Eastern European friends are outraged that their punks should now be models for “hipsters”, but we might as well ready for the world that will quickly run out of secrets. To our horror, something fantastically new will have to develop rapidly to pacify our ever-increasing curiosity, but to our relief, with every generation there is a change of context, and the old finds a place amongst the new. In Gogol Bordello’s unintelligible punk, the gypsy has found something new, and vice versa.
hooves on the turf is a mostly-music blog based out of brooklyn. i can be reached at hoovesontheturf [at] gmail [dot] com - please send me your lovely music as an attached mp3 or an mp3 link. if i like what you send, i'll be sure to ask for more.
Evan Hammer: and now i’m excited too! thanks for the new band.
Jens: Where can I order t-shirts from the Tallest Man On Earth online? Is it possible at all?
nat lyon: three cheers for secret garden! it’s been too long.
jamie: Yo! You should definitely check out this awesome video MPLS.TV just shot of Dark Dark Dark this week for City...
sarahana: they were taken with the new iPhone 4 using the Hipstamatic app
