Pianos, Feb 13 , 2007

I skipped on the St. Patrick's Day revelries. I never particularly enjoyed the crowds to begin with. Also, I paid my dues closing out the bar with some great boys from Dublin earlier this week so tonight would've been kind of unnecessary compared to that.

Thanks to a tip off from the guys of the Delorentos, I found myself at Pianos on the Lower East Side this past Tuesday. They fully won me over the last time I saw them play. Though their album is coming out on April 20, I figured I'd have to rely on music from Myspace while I figured out how to get a hold of copy. Also, I wanted to catch one more dose of live performance before they headed back to Ireland.

The lineup of bands playing that evening was an interesting mix. I was looking forward to hearing more of the first band moi Caprice. Not a new band, but new to me.


("Summerfool," moi Caprice)


("The Town, the City," moi Caprice)

The sound was a Scandanavian goosebumps inducing pop with a sprinkle of synth. Not goosebumps inducing in the Sigur Ros type of way, but a very specific airy sound that seemed to be the bastard child of The Cardigans and a-ha, and then you let that kid spend its formative years staying with their uncle The Smiths in Copenhagen. This was not a bad thing. In fact I'm <3-ing (Oh yes, I went there and turned that into a verb because that's the only way to describe it) "The Town, the City."



The second act was Cowmuddy from Philly. I really liked how "Bread and Butter" sounded and I enjoyed that the folk sound he had.





The third act was Powersolo and quite honestly I don't know what to think. They were fantastic and confusing all at the same time. It was basically rockabilly via Denmark with heavy influence from...Bud Light and Nascar.


("Juanito," Powersolo)

The singing dialect(?) was so distinct that you could practically smell the meth cook. It was almost as if they'd sat down in one of those contraptions from a Clockwork Orange and watched episodes of Hee Haw. While they were at it, the lead vocal got the special treat of watching a bunch of tapes featuring the talents Michael Winslow of Police Academy so that he could properly punctuate the songs with cat yowls, fart noises and what sounded like a souped up outboard motor in some sort of his own version of eefing or something. In other words, they were AWESOME. Also, their drummer looked like James Spader circa Stargate. Anyhow, definitely watch these guys live if you ever get the chance.

The Delorentos took the stage a little after 11 pm. I was surprised to learn later on that they had just arrived in New York on Wednesday of the previous week because their performance on Thursday was spot on. They definitely seemed to be having more fun with the show on Tuesday.

Interestingly, they had played Hard Working Class Heroes last year when I was in Dublin last year. I didn't get a chance to see them play, but they were recording their album at the Temple Bar Music Centre right across the street from Barnacles, the hostel I was staying at.

Nial: Did you by any chance hear a French horn while you were there?

Me: ???...Actually, now that I think about it I kind of do remember wondering...

Nial: That was me!! I was blowing the French horn out of the window!

Not only that but we had both been at the set The Star Department played for HWCH. I got a guitar pick from Justin of The Star Department only to find out later that it was his lucky pick. But that's another story that I managed not to tell when I got lazy with finishing up my travelogue.

We stayed at Pianos until they kicked us out. I got home at 5:30 on Wednesday morning, slept about an hour or two, and bounced off to work. The boys were great. Their friends were great. I simply want to thank them for the fabulous time that was had and I hope SXSW was good to them.