Last night I saw
The Kooks at
Music Hall of Williamsburg and let me tell you, the kooks were definitely out. I suppose you had to be crazy to go out in the cold sleet/rain/snow last night though. But I saw numerous fights almost break out - even in the coat check line - and I almost ended up in one myself. Imagine it! Shy little non-confrontational me! Something in the rain water maybe? I don't know.
Anyway, it was a night full of Brits. Half the audience seemed to be British - coming out to support bands from the motherland I assume (my ears were delighted by all the charming accents around me). When I arrived,
Nat Jenkins was playing. I didn't catch his whole set. He looked kind of like a country bumpkin in his plaid shirt, but that was fitting because his music actually had a folky/country feel to it, along with a hint of 60s pop (there was a certain bounce to it). It was an interesting combination but it worked.
Next up was
The Duke Spirit, with sassy lead singer Liela Moss, who totally stole the show. She was stylish, fun and full of drama and energy. She also had a very sexy voice. Their music was in the same vein as The Kooks - high energy dance rock, with the occasional slower, more dramatic number. I really enjoyed their performance and I think Liela Moss is the coolest. The one unfortunate thing was that the lighting guy decided from here on in it would be a good idea to light the audience instead of the band, so we were blinded and the band was backlit for pretty much the entire rest of the show.
After The Duke Spirit departed from the stage, that is when the crowd started getting rowdy. A lot of people seemed to decide all at the same time that it would be a good idea to make their way up to the front (which those of us who had been there since the beginning weren't too happy about, as you can imagine). Some people got away with it without making everyone hate them, but then these two tall drunk bitches were shoving their way through the crowd and for some reason decided they had to be where I was standing and literally aggressively pushed me out of the way. I actually said out loud "are you serious?" (which is bold for me) and the slightly-less-drunk bitch was like "yeah, kinda." WTF?! Now, it turned out for the best because I instantly made friends with everyone around me who saw it. They were all equally outraged and totally on my side. It's a good thing I hadn't been drinking or I might've actually started a fight with them. If I had a drink in my hand at the time, I most definitely would've "spilled" it on them. Luckily, one of my new outraged friends, Carter, stepped in on my behalf (and on behalf of everyone around me who was now having trouble seeing over their stupid tall heads) and got up in their faces. I really thought a fight was going to break out, but it ended with Carter giving them a little taste of their own medicine and shoving them aside and eventually they gave up on pushing back. So by the time The Kooks went on, I got my spot back and could actually see. Yay! Thanks Carter - you're my hero!
The Kooks were fabulous. I had never really bothered looking at pictures of them, so I was surprised at how young they are (they're all around age 22 from what I can gather via Wikipedia and some of them look even younger). They had a great energy and lead singer Luke Pritchard liked to get up close to the audience, as you can see from the picture (right), which is always fun. The audience went crazy every single time. Much to my delight, they played my two favorites -
Matchbox, She Moves in Her Own Way and
You Don't Love Me. It got steaming hot from everyone dancing and jumping around, but it was a blast.
One thing about Music Hall of Williamsburg - don't check your coat. There was only one poor coat check guy, and there didn't really seem to be a line. People were just kind of going whereever they could (this caused some tension amongst some, and hence more fights almost broke out. It was intense, especially just for coats).
. Or watch the slideshow below:
Tuesday night I trekked over to Music Hall of Williamsburg to catch The Hymns, The Antlers and Here We Go Magic. I have to say, for me Hymns kind of stole the show and it's a shame more people weren't there early enough to see them. They're a New York band (by way of North Carolina and Texas), who play country-style rock. While they didn't always look 100% sure of themselves (maybe it was the fact that the bass player had joined them 2 days prior and they didn't have their whole band with them), I think they are definitely a band to watch over the next few years. Their music is solid and highly enjoyable. Considering the small audience they had, they did a good job of keeping us engaged and keeping their own energy up. I don't think I've ever seen someone jump around on stage as much as guitarist Jason Roberts, who accidentall spit his gum into his hair at one point (hot! haha). Definitely check them out if you have a chance. I bet they're even better with their full band.
Next up was The Antlers. While I really enjoy their music ("Hospice" is one of my favorite albums this year) and think they are incredibly talented, I have to say that I didn't think MHOW was a good venue to see them perform. I want to be sitting down with a glass of wine or something when I listen to The Antlers. Not standing up in a poorly mixed music hall with drunk people bumping into me as they try to dance to music that isn't danceable. Their wall-of-sound thing that they have going on would be great in a sit-down venue with a really stellar sound system where we could relax calmly and just absorb the beautiful music. Their music has an intense drama to it that I absolutely love. But I would prefer to see them in a different venue next time.
Headlining was Here We Go Magic, a band that I'm not sure what size they are, as new members seemed to appear out of thin air at times and then disappear again. I believe it's spear-headed by Luke Temple (see right). Here We Go Magic tied together the first two bands well, as they were a little more upbeat than The Antlers, but still had a wall-of-sound, semi-experimental thing going on. Listening to their self-titled album, I have to say I love the music. It's different enough to stand out, but catchy enough to be pallatable to many different people. Unfortunately, the sound mixing got even worse when they went on and so I can't say I enjoyed the show as much as I thought I would. First, I couldn't hear the vocals at all. Then the vocals were all too loud and unevenly mixed amongst all the singers. So once again, we have a venue problem (although I think the venue size/setting was appropriate for Here We Go Magic). But I would say that they're definitely worth seeing again, hopefully in a venue with better sound mixing.
