You read that right. The Big Sleep at Mercury Lounge...again. Sound was a little muddy, but we had a nice time. And I took artsy-fartsy pictures.
I'll post the full set on Flickr is the site ever gets fixed. In the meantime, I also took somemuddy sounding, not-so-tasty (once I compressed it for YouTube, that is) video...
My good friend Josh at Dilettante Films has finally hit the big time. (And if you look closely, you'll even see fellow Secret Square Tye in the background at the video's end.)
Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Gee, this site used to consist of more than incessant (and sub-par) concert photos."
You are not wrong. *Bitter Defeat* has been something of a one-trick pony over the past month. I have no compelling excuse (although I have several not-very-compelling excuses). I can only promise to try harder to focus on my own meandering fancies and the detritus of popular culture.
And now back to the middling photos and half-assed concert reviews...
Despite slightly muddy sound and the fucking travesty that is the "beer ticket," Brooklyn Masonic Temple is a very cool venue. It was like seeing a show in a high school gymnasium circa 1961, minus the taffeta and cats-eye glasses. The band played an energetic set (especially during the show's latter half), culminating in a fantastic (and totally unexpected) cover of Chicago's "Feelin' Stronger Every Day," sung by keyboardist Ryan Monroe. Monroe has upped BoH's "bar band" quotient by roughly three hundred percent, and a Doobie Brothers cover is always just around the corner. (He always makes me think of Jeff Healey, the Double Deuce's blind slide guitar player in Road House.)
It was a nice down-home Valentine's Day for the whole family, with more beards, flannel, and trucker hats than you could shake a stick at. In other words, it was a typical night in Brooklyn. (Full image set at Flickr)
Two nights of seamless power-pop with New York's very own Nada Surf! Despite their reputation among the general public as a 1990s Alternative Nation one-hit wonder thanks to 1996's "Popular" (MP3), Nada Surf has amassed a large and die-hard indie-rock following. And although their latest album, Lucky (which came out last Tuesday) is good-not-great, they put on one hell of a live show. Highlights on both nights included "Blonde on Blonde," "Happy Kid," "Always Love," new track "Ice on the Wing" (MP3), and a show-stopping version of "Killian's Red" (MP3).
Unfortunately when I took out my camera to grab some shots of the Williamsburg show, I realized the battery was still at home charging. As for the Bowery show the following night, it was one of the darkest, reddest shows I've seen in a long time. Which means my pictures pretty much suck. (Check out the "entire" set at Flickr. Hopefully Redboy will post his shots soon.**UPDATE: Redboy's pix are up.)
The show culminated in the most well-behaved stage invasion of all time...
And here's some (surprise, surprise) dark, red-lit video of "Blonde on Blonde"...
Finally, some bad news and some good news:
First, the bad news. Criminally underrated American cinema icon Roy Scheider passed away yesterday at the age of 75. Best known for playing a cop (or a spy) in almost every cool movie of the 1970s (including Klute, The French Connection, The 7-Ups, Jaws, The Marathon Man, and Sorcerer), Scheider continued to do great work well into the 1990s, from All That Jazz, Blue Thunder, and 2010 to gritty neo-noir projects like 52 Pick-Up and Romeo Is Bleeding. In a weird way, it's akin to losing a really cool older brother. We'll all miss you, Chief Brody.
Now for the good news. As reported at Gothamist, Brooklyn's McCarren Park Pool, possibly the city's the best overall summer music venue, will apparently be around for one more concert season. Maybe I'll learn to use my camera before then.
