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:
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.
