Bowery Ballroom. Friday evening. A Friday after the Friday when supposedly ISIS terrorists slayed 130 concert goers on a night just like this one but in Paris.
A lot was said and read and written about the terrorist attack and the refugee situation for this past week. My Facebook account, and probably yours too, was flooded with views across the whole spectrum of people that were competent or not, tolerant or not, empathetic or not, I personally decided to don’t say anything. With both my country being for over five centuries under Osman slavery and my people being suppressed in any possible way and me having Muslim friends, along with the all kinds of people I call friends because of the personalities I have and not the color or religion they belong to.
Why I’m saying all that? When I walked inside Bowery Ballroom, which is by the way probably my second favorite music venue in NYC after Irving Plaza I realized it’s exactly a week after the attacks. The horror started in an environment very close to this show. And regardless of that the venue was full of people that weren’t afraid. And tens of thousands other venues all over the world were full or not that full of people at this same very night and the other ones to follow and this was victory and this was freedom. The show must go on. And it went on.
First on the list were Spirit Animal – a very Brooklyn (said in a good way!) funky alternative mash of noisy guitars, catchy poppy rhythms and Mike Patton creepiness. Seriously – Mike Patton was the one name ringing in my head as something similar while I was listening to the set. Ok – if Mike Patton went more pop. And lived in Brooklyn. Spirit Animal just released their new single “Regular Life”
and are mini touring over the East Coast early December. All the details on Spirit Animal’s Facebook page.
Little Hurricane, a down-and-gritty bluesy duo hailing from San Diego, California, attracted the largest audience with dirty guitars, lyrics like “I don’t want no sugar in my coffee – it makes me mean” and a fantastic stage chemistry and appearance.
The voice of Anthony “Tone” Catalano sounds more powerful and appealing live than on records (although it sounds pretty good on records too) and is perfectly complemented by Celeste “CC” Spina – energetic an super adorable female drummer tapping with her bare feet on the pedals of the drums.
Little Hurricane played songs from their two LPs “Gold Fever” and “Homewrecker”, as well as covers of timeless classics like “Ain’t No Sunshine”. The duo dedicated a song to New York City, which is always sweet and the old school mic over which Tone was occasionally leaning to sing is pretty much the best stage mic I’ve seen since Jonathan Davis’ H.R. Giger masterpiece.
This is my favorite little hurricane song (yes, they usually write their name with lower letters) – Haunted Heart.
A little after 11 PM it was time for the headliners – July Talk. This Canadian-made band consists of singers Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay, guitarist Ian Docherty, bassist Josh Warburton and drummer Danny Miles.
And because I like so much comparison definitions (and I’m sure a lot of the actual musicians really hate them) I will describe July Talk as something close to the brainchild of Tom Waits, Blonde Redhead and The Raveonettes getting together to jam raunchy quirky blues.
Oh, Leah Fay is adorable and hilarious! Appearing in the beginning of the show in a white sweatshirt with printed big/bare breasted island woman on a phallic-looking boat and then stripping to a black crop top and white tennis skirt – she’s completely captivating and painfully entertaining – eating a donut and biting it then throwing to the public, laying on the stage with her feet in the air like a naughty little girl or crowdsurfing.
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July Talk’s stripped-down and fun blues was a great finish of the night. Peter kept cheering the audience, as learning what I’ve learned years ago moving here – that NYC has the most spoiled concert crowd ever and to make it show an emotion, is pretty fucking hard. After the band finished their set, they were also the only one to come out on encore – going “in full circle” and playing the first song they recorded together. “It used to be called “July Talk”, but then we needed a fucking band name” – the front singer added. I loved July Talk’s show, yet I still think their production is really, really badass and opposite of little hurricane they sound even better on records.
For an ending of this post – check out one of July Talk’s best (and most popular) songs – “Gentleman”. Live.
pictures + text: Mart Kawaii
