Last Night: Harlem Shakes/Born Ruffians/Tokyo Police Club

click to enlarge! They all kinda suck though.

Harlem Shakes:


Born Ruffians:


Tokyo Police Club:


I could talk about this show for a long time. It was at Webster Hall in the east village and was really good. Crowd was insane. All kids, tall 20-somethings and lots of pot (as usual).

Harlem Shakes are pretty much an accessible hybrid of Animal Collective and Modest Mouse, so if you like those guys, check them out. I could tell that a couple of people were confused by them, but I could also see that they would have a market.

Born Ruffians set was so good. Everyone was so into it. People were singing along and the floor was bouncing, it was really fun. They opened with Badonkadonkey (they always do) and closed with I Need a Life. The rest of the set list, not in this order: Red, Yellow & Blue, Barnacle Goose, Hummingbird, Foxes Mate for Life, Hedonistic Me, In a Mirror and Kurt Vonnegut. No new songs.

Unlike BR, every other Tokyo Police Club song was new and I'm pretty sure they were stoned/drunk/both. They took way too much time to set up and the kids got out of control during the set, which was really annoying. Tall people blocked my view. We left 2/3rds of the way through their set. I just read about an after party in SoHo that was free with a ticket, which sucks, but it might have been 21+.

Passed the merch table on the way out and saw the bassist from the Born Ruffians (Mitch) selling their stuff. I was with my mom (ugh) because nobody else would come with me, but he recognized us from last time we saw them at their acoustic show at Soundfix Records in Brooklyn (nobody would come with me then either). We talked for awhile...I learned:

1. Steve the drummer was not there because he didn't want to tour this year
2. I asked and they're writing/recording their 2nd LP this summer
3. They want to release it January 2010

and then I had to buy a shirt because we were talking for too long. Haha

2 comments:

parkereloise said...

haha i would go with you! oh TCP. saddle creek wREckhords represent... stop getting stonedD. wow ur mom is cool my motha would neva go to a rock cawncert with me. well still sounds like a bitching time, i wuf born ruffians song hummingbird aha its the onylone i know... probably too mainstream for yew TW, such an indie darling. and very cool meeting the band people at ze merch booth. that is so like the faint lyrics come to life.....
k end of my wwierdness

Anonymous said...

But Steve was at their Australian tour in early Feb. Does this mean he's just not going to be at the upcoming US gigs? Where is he? Who's filling his spot? Sorry for all the questions. I just hope he hasn't pulled an Albert [via The Strokes] and bail out on the band. Gets one quite paranoid.