Willy Gantrim at The Knitting Factory

I'm used to seeing Willy Gantrim at either small venues or big outdoor festivals. Catching him at a mid-sized concert hall is a weird thing. I mean, he is just one guy who sits there and plays his songs. While he was accompanied by a drummer on most of his songs, there sure was a lot of open space on that stage!

Posted: 8/2/2013 at 6:15pm     Tags: The Knitting Factory  Willy Gantrim 

Saint Motel at The Knitting Factory

I don't normally go out for these mainstream-ish pop bands, the ones who play to an audience which is 80% female. I have to admit though that Saint Motel have some quirky electro-funky songs which are pretty good. Check out Benny Goodman (their song, I mean). They've got a few like that and those are the songs I like. I'm not as crazy about all the ballads, but I get the feeling that those are targeted at a different audience (and hit their target).

Posted: 7/10/2013 at 8:46pm     Tags: Saint Motel  The Knitting Factory 

Dinowalrus at The Knitting Factory

This is a good example of a show which should have had different lighting. Dinowalrus would have gone nicely with more a flashy light show. Their sound is that 80's alternative-rock sound, similar to local bands such as Beach Fossils or DIIV but just a bit more trippy, more ephemeral. It's still a big sound though, the kind which goes well with big venues and flashy light shows. Instead most of the time there was this weird marquee thing where one spotlight flashed for a moment, then the one next to it flashed for a moment, then the next and so on around the stage. In my opinion at least my best shots were taken when lots of lights were on. Oh well, can't win 'em all.

Posted: 5/27/2013 at 8:55pm     Tags: Dinowalrus  The Knitting Factory  WHCS Benefit 

The So So Glos at The Knitting Factory

The So So Glos are so closely affiliated with the DIY scene and with Shea Stadium (the warehouse venue which some of them helped create) that it was weird seeing them at a "fancy" venue like The Knitting Factory. The band didn't seem entirely comfortable either, asking to have the bright lights turned down and commenting on the less active parts of the audience. Even they mentioned that they were used to playing Shea Statium. So unfortunately things were a bit awkward for a while there. Fortunately the band was energetic and sounded great, so the audience got more into it towards the end.

I suppose one of the advantages of building your own DIY space is that you can set it up however you want. You can have as much or as little lighting as you want. You can choose the height of the stage. You can have any kind of beer you want (think about that!) Playing at a big venue is pretty much the opposite. You may get to tweak a few things but in the end you get what they give you. So certainly I can see why a band would want the venue they were playing to be more like the one which they created. They want the venue to be a nice "fit". Unfortunately the venue is not always so flexible. I think this might have been one of those cases.

Posted: 5/27/2013 at 3:32pm     Tags: The Knitting Factory  The So So Glos  WHCS Benefit 

Coliseum at The Knitting Factory

I'm not going to say too much about Coliseum. Is there any need? What do you see in those photos? Beards, skulls, and lots of dark. Yeah, they're something like a metal band. Let's just leave it at that.

Posted: 5/22/2013 at 7:34pm     Tags: Coliseum  The Knitting Factory 

Pampers at The Knitting Factory

Pampers are new they don't even have a Facebook page. No that's not a baby joke. Actually, now that I think about it the last band I shot (Las Rosas) also doesn't have a Facebook page. Facebook is dying folks, you heard it here first eventually.

So who are these guys? They're a particularly kick-ass local punk band. They are yet more evidence that the punks who have been around the block a few times are the best at it (even if they haven't figured out social media). One of them appears to be Emilio Estevez. But the main thing is that their music is awesome. As far as I'm concerned any band which stands on their instruments (or tries to play the keyboard with their feet?) is doing punk right.

Posted: 5/22/2013 at 5:01pm     Tags: Pampers  the band not the brand  The Knitting Factory 

Disappears at The Knitting Factory

In a previous review I referred to Disappears as a shoegaze band. This is not an entirely accurate description because it misses out on a few things. While some of their music qualifies as the sort of trippy but toothless psych which I at least associate with "shoegaze" they also churn out plenty of actual substantial psychedelic rock, seemingly with an emphasis on the rock. In fact I almost hate to call them "psych" because they seem to be missing the gaudier aspects of psych rock such as atonal bits and extended drones. Yet I think that it is an apt description. Instead of focusing on the darker, heavier, perhaps wannabe-spiritial aspects of the music they focus on the lighter, trippier bits. That's still a sort of psych-rock, right?

At different times Disappears reminded me of many different bands such as the Velvet Underground (especially on tracks like this one), Bauhaus, A Place to Bury Strangers and even Massive Attack (despite the lack of samples or electronica paraphernalia). Yet Disappears always seemed like a lighter version of that music, not quite as "heavy", or perhaps not quite as pessimistic? That's also why I didn't think the hardcore band which opened the show was a good fit to this bill. They were more visceral while Disappears was more heady. Not quite a good match.

Posted: 4/28/2013 at 1:03pm     Tags: Disappears  The Knitting Factory