What a weekend, as Brooklyn Vegan pointed out the day after the beginning of the shit show that was this past weekend. The beginning I speak of was the GBH promoted Ed Banger show at the Hiro Ballroom on Thursday night.
Show 1: Ed Banger Records at Hiro Ballroom
Audio Sample: Justice – “Waters of Nazareth”
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I made it in to the Big Apple on Thursday night at 8:30 after a roughly 4 and half hour trip down from Boston on the LimoLiner (great way to transport oneself from city to city). Straight from the drop off point I met the hood rats and made our way quickly over to the ballroom. This is where we were greeted by a wrap-around-the-block line, but no worries, we had reserved a table ahead of time, which allowed us to bump the line and head right to our table – Thanks Alex and Vince.
After a few Grey Gooses, some glasses of champaigne and other fun stuff, The Presets began their set, and in my opinion, put on a very good showing. This Sydney based electronic duo switches from bass guitar, keys and a pretty sick drum kit to keep the songs unique and beats original. Their soft vocals float secretly behind these infectious beats. It was a great start to the night.
Shortly after, Busy P, DJ Mehdi, SebastiAn, Justice and the rest of the Ed Banger groupies filled the stage and the DJ sets began. Overall, the sets were pretty solid. Something I didn’t expect was that they all seemed to add in some classic tunes. I remember one Nirvana track being mixed and the Paul Simon classic, “You Can Call Me Al”.
One observation our gang seemed to all agree upon was that it wasn’t as loud as we thought an Ed Banger show would be. Maybe it had something to do with the venue but in the end, this wasn’t any big buzz killer. We still felt like we were in a modern day Andy Warhol flic with all the red velvet booths, champaign, drugs, crowded dance floor and good vibes. The highlight of the night for me was getting dragged up on stage by Mr. Ted-E and having my pic taken in front of Justice. I hope to have it in my hands soon. Currently it’s in Puerto Rico…Vince, send it along as soon as possible buddy. Plus, there are more characters that were at this show then Gawker, Nikola from Ambrel and Cobra Snake would have you believe. Although their pictures are a bit more artsy then the one’s I’ll post.
Ed Banger Website: http://www.edbangerrecords.com/
Show 2: LCD Soundsystem at Bowery Ballroom
Audio Sample: “Someone Great”
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Heading over to the Bowery from the West side we ran in to a wall of traffic as part of Canal street was closed due to construction. Perfect timing. All three of us not being from NYC, we were told by a fairly reliable source that the Bowery had a 12 am curfew. With this knowledge, we were a bit antsy by the slow traffic and made our way by foot. Upon arriving we asked the merch crew what time they went on the night before and the answer…12 am…current time, 10 pm. So, we had some drinking time ahead of us.
By 11:45 James and Co. started to take the stage so we headed on up from the basement bar to find a sardine packed floor. We made it to the balcony where we found some space and stiff-as-mannequin onlookers. Don’t get me wrong, the floor kids were getting groovy but the upstairs gang needed to take some lessons. And I was happy to teach them.
Their set was a decent mix between new tracks from Sound of Silver and old, if you can consider them old. They jammed out fan favorites “Daft Punk Is Playing at My House” and “North American Scum” but my personal favorite was “Yeah”. LCD really gave me a feeling that I haven’t had at a concert for some time. Probably not since Hot Chip rolled through Boston in the Fall. It’s one of those feelings you have where everything around you seems perfectly aligned. You’ve got your best girl to your right, one of your best buddies to your left and one of the greatest bands on the market in front of you and they are hitting on all cylinders. Sorry for the cosmic mumbo jumbo but I’m reading the Bill Bryson book, “A Short History of Nearly Everything”.
The end, however, came way to soon. The set was maybe 45 minutes and then a fantastic rendition of “Somone Great” and” New York I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” were played for the encore. The main downfall of the show is that they left us kind of hanging. Could have easily enjoyed another hour. To their benefit, James Murphy did have the flu and they were rocking around Europe for a full month. Now they’ll go get some rest and come back out on the road as they continue on their quest to get the masses dancing.
In the end, both shows were impressive and jam packed full of craziness. I’m excited for LCD to make their way up north to Boston in May where we have 8 tix locked up and we’re looking to take the dance floor over.
Purchase “Sound of Silver: Amazon – Insound - iTunes
LCD Soundsystem website: http://lcdsoundsystem.com/
DFA Records website: http://www.dfarecords.com/
