Ane Brun @ Bowery Ballroom

On Tuesday night, I had the privilege of going to see Ane Brun perform at Bowery Ballroom. Last time I saw her at Union Hall, she was amazing, but it wasn't an ideal show because of Union Hall's not very raised stage and me being not very tall and unable to see anything. So I snagged myself a front row spot at Bowery this time to make sure I could actually see my favorite Scandinavian songstress.

Olof Arnalds was up first. She's adorable. She had the audience singing along on multiple occasions and she made cute jokes (like when she did a Bruce Springstein cover and talked about bruise(bruce)-ing her ass on tour in Canada). While I just can't seem to get as into her music on the recordings I hear of it, she is a good performer - her music comes alive much more when she's playing it in front of an audience - and she's a good fit to play with Ane Brun. She too has a unique voice and specializes in slow, folky tunes. It was also fitting because she started out singing an Irish folk song, which dedicated to her grandmother who passed away, and she sang it completely acapella. Ane Brun ended her set with an acapella solo, something kind of operatic but I'm not sure exactly what the song was. It made very nice book ends to the night.

Ane Brun was spectacular. She pretty much has the perfect voice - different enough to stand apart from other singers, but completely beautiful, entrancing, haunting, even chilling and always in the perfect tone for what she's singing about, whether it be melancholy or happy, lovestruck or lovelorn. It's one of those few voices that sounds the same live as it does on the album so you know she's not being auto-tuned. She's also adorable, not to mention gorgeous, and she's a very humble performer. She kept thanking the audience and all the artists and Bowery Ballroom for being there and saying how excited and honored she was to be there. I really kind of want to be best friends with her.

She played most of my favorite songs except for "Song No. 6," and she told little stories in between about what inspired the songs or just things that were somehow related to the songs. And she had a few guest artists performing with her - a cellist and singer for a few songs, and then Anna Ternheim came on stage with her for a song during her encore.  Ane is spectacular by herself - that's one of the great things about her - but it was quite nice to see her play with other people, to hear the rich harmonies that are on her album, and the cello complimented it well. One of my favorite parts of the show was when she had us "oooo"-ing along with her song "Rubber & Soul" (one of my favorite songs of hers) and at the end she goes "wow, you hipsters... you can sing." All in all, a great night - one of those concerts that makes me think as I'm walking home about how lucky I am to be living in New York City and to have access to all this amazing music.

SET LIST:
My Lover Will Go
To Let Myself Go (? not 100% sure about this one)
Round Table Conference
Raise My Head
Ten Seconds
My Star
The Puzzle
Lullaby For Grown Ups
The Changing of the Seasons
The Treehouse Song
The Fall
It's Alright (cover)
Rubber & Soul
Balloon Ranger
Encore:
Gillian
Off the Road (by and featuring Anna Ternheim)
Alfonsina (? Also not sure about this one, as I can't quite read the set list)

More pictures:

Ane Brun @ Bowery Ballroom

The Puzzle [mp3] - (iTunes)

P.S. I should also add that Ane just released four older albums that weren't available in the US here, so be sure to check those out.

The Lovely Feathers and Kittens Ablaze @ Bowery Ballroom

On Wednesday night I had the pleasure of seeing The Lovely Feathers from Montreal and local band Kittens Ablaze open for Rural Alberta Advantage (who I have seen before and unfortunately could not stay for this time around).

The Lovely Feathers were up first, and I've always liked their particular brand of pub rock/pop (you know, the kind of music that gets drunk people shouting along at the top of their lungs). I've had "Lowiza" stuck in my head for days since the show because their songs are damn catchy. They put on a good high energy show, and yet were down-to-earth at the same time with amusing between song banter with the audience. They're a good looking bunch of guys too, and the music seemed more playful live than it does on the album. Definitely worth checking out if they come to your town.

Lowiza [mp3] - (iTunes)

Kittens Ablaze (best band name ever!) put on fabulously rockin' show. Particularly guitar player Nate Senge, who was leaping off of equipment (and over equipment) and generally head-banging a lot. But the whole band was pretty awesome. They were so much fun and they had the whole crowd singing and dancing along, especially to audience faves like "This Machine is Dying," which also happens to be my favorite. Seeing as they're local, I expect all you NYC readers to go check them out.

This Machine is Dying [mp3] - (iTunes)

More pictures here:

The Lovely Feathers & Kittens Ablaze @ Bowery Ballroom

I do have one criticism, but it's not of the band so much as of the audience (warning, rant coming - feel free to skip this part UNLESS you are a friend of a band - any band - and go to lots of their shows): their friends were f**king obnoxious. About one third of the way into their set, a screaming, jumping friend of theirs came a-runnin' up to the stage and quite literally plowed into me while I was trying to take some photos and completely stole my spot after nearly knocking me clean off my feet. He then preceded to knock into or shove in front of at least two other photographers. And for the rest of the show he wouldn't stop jumping and screaming really stupid shit (lots of inside jokes and then just stupid immature drunk stuff). I found it really hard to focus on the band (or hear them over his yelling) when I was worried about getting elbowed in the head by him and his friends who soon joined him. A suggestion to friends of bands: don't ruin the show for other people. Just because you know them and you see them play all the time, doesn't mean everyone else does too, and we might like to hear the band instead of you yelling the whole time. It will help your friends build a bigger fan base if you shut the f**k up. And don't knock over the photographers/journalists who are trying to give your friends free publicity. We're trying to do good things for your friends, so don't interfere. Thanks.

LILY ALLEN FREE ("secret") SHOW AT BOWERY BALLROOM!!!!

This just in! Lily Allen is playing a secret show tonight at Bowery Ballroom for FREE! Matt & Kim are opening. Oh man, I'm super depressed right now that I can't go. Doors are at 7pm, but it's a first come first serve shindig, so get there early. *sigh*

WIN FREE CONCERT TICKETS! BOWERY BALLROOM NYC - FEB 5!!!

I'm very pleased to announce our first ever contest here at Guilt Free Pleasures!!! The prize is 2 tickets to see Francis and The Lights, Savoir Adore, and The Bloodsugars at Bowery Ballroom on February 5th. The show is to celebrate the release for Guilt By Association, Volume 2 - a compilation CD of the hippest current indie bands doing covers of classics like "In the Air Tonight" or "We Didn't Start the Fire".

So here is the contest - the first person to email me and answer the following question wins: Which of the three bands performing at the show on February 5th are not from Brooklyn (hint: check their myspaces)?

The Top [mp3] - Francis and the Lights (iTunes)

Stop... Continue!

Last night I saw Electric Six perform at the Bowery Ballroom. I have to say it was a decidedly better experience than when I saw them on a boat this past summer. This was my first show at the Bowery Ballroom too. It's a nice space. Much bigger than the riverboat from the Rocks Off Concert Cruise.

The best improvement was that Electric Six was actually on a raised stage so I could see much better (and there wasn't a scantily dressed girl who felt the need to pole dance on a column in front of the stage obscuring my view this time either). Plus the people in the crowd were significantly less rowdy, so I wasn't being shoved around as much (see? The audience can totally make or break a show). There were a few mini-mosh pit attempts from these six guys not standing far away from me, but most of them fizzled out relatively quickly. One guy tried to crowd surf and dove off the stage, but this crowd was having none of that so no one caught him. They just kind of all jumped out of the way. It was hilarious. He didn't get hurt or anything - if he had it probably wouldn't have been quite as funny - he just got right back up and tried to start moshing.

Ironically, the girls were the probably more rowdy this time around. At one point, lead singer Dick Valentine came and sat on the edge of the stage (pictured right) and pulled two girls up on stage with him. This happened directly in front of me, so all of a sudden I was being shoved in all directions by girls trying to get to him. And when he came down into the audience and was dancing with those of us who happened to be standing there, the shoving got even worse. But I stood my ground and maintained my spot. The good thing about the shoving was that I went from being approximately 3rd row to being shoved up against the stage, so I ended up benefiting from it in the long run. Just goes to show you though - there is truth to that stereotype of girls throwing themselves at rock stars, because as cool as Valentine is, he's definitely not super hot or anything and he had all these 18-20 year old girls shoving each other to get to him.

I feel like part of the reason the crowd was overall less rowdy was that it was an 18+ show so it wasn't like on the boat where everyone was totally trashed. But it made me feel old when I looked around me and realized my friend and I were the only people I could see in the vicinity of where we were standing with wristbands signifying that we are legally old enough to drink.

Electric Six was awesome as usual, putting on a high-energy performance and just having a blast and being their crazy selves. Dick Valentine is quite a character. He came on wearing a shiny purple/blue cape that "Showtime" on the back (pictured right). He quickly lost that, and soon thereafter took off his blazer and untucked his shirt. He seems to really like hugging audience members (particularly girls...) and picking up the microphone stand and swinging it around in the air or propping it on his shoulder. At one point he also started doing push-ups and sit-ups. He dances really silly most of the time, which is awesome. And he also just sat down on the stage for a bit and was playing air guitar.

My favorite member is still probably the guitar player with the dark hair (pictured left - there are two guitar players, and I can't figure out from their website what his name is) who always conveniently ends up on stage right in front of me so I can stare at his beautiful face. He's really hot. Although, I have to say, he came out in a sweater and a hat before the show to set up, and he looks so much hotter in a suit, which he wore during the performance (he also wore a suit when I saw them on the boat). But he gets really intense when he's singing and the veins in his neck pop out and he has great hair for rocking out. He's pretty awesome. As a matter of fact, all the members of the band are really cool and total characters. I loved the keyboard players' glasses too.

The one thing I have to say that I missed from the boat performance is that a few of them were wearing sailor hats and other sailor garb, and that was fun. This time around, there was no sailor garb. I also didn't know any of the songs off their new album, "I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being The Master" so I couldn't really sing along to some of the songs (but that's my own fault). Oh and I also wish I could've gotten better/more pictures of the band members on the right side of the stage, but my camera sucks and they were far away/blocked by people, so sorry to those band members who are under-represented in these photos.

The other really cool thing is that I managed to snag a set list (with the help of my really tall friend). It is the first real set list I've managed to get my hands on (pictured right) because usually I am too shy to ask for it or too short to reach it if it's left lying on the stage. So here it is, the set list:

It's Showtime
Dance Commander
Rock and Roll Evacuation
Down at McDonnelzzz
Infected Girls
Riding on the White Train
Electric Demons in Love
Randy's Hot Tonight
Dance Pattern
Improper Dancing
Danger! Danger!
(which is actually titled Danger! High Voltage on the CD, but that's what the set list says...)
Future is in the Future
Feed My Habit
I Buy the Drugs

Encore:
When I Get to the Green Building
Dance Epidemic
Gay Bar
Germans in Mexico

More pictures (and for even more - yes, I took a lot of pictures - go here):

Love Dick Valentine's hair in this one

He really likes to hug the audience...

Push-ups

Air guitar

And some songs:

Gay Bar [mp3]
Down at McDonnelzzz [mp3]

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