Four Year Strong — Seaway — Like Pacific — Grayscale — Life Lessons
New England pop punk staples Four Year Strong celebrated the 10 year anniversary of their boisterous album Rise or Die Trying last month. The album was played to crowdsurfing fans for two nights at the Brooklyn Bazaar.
In standard pop punk fashion, the night kicked off with the first of a 5 band bill, Oklahoma’s own Life Lessons. By the time Philly’s Grayscale took the stage, the crowd was rowdy, screaming lyrics into the singer’s mic while pumping their fists.
Canadian bands Like Pacific and Seaway tore up the small venue next, with the latter donned in sunglasses and island shirts in reference to their recently released album Vacation.
Four Year Strong played Rise or Die Trying in full, along with some of the fan favorites from their other albums, including many from Enemy of the World as well. They ended the night with Wasting Time, as fans bodies flew through the top of the crowd, sweaty but having a hell of a time.
British indie songwriter Dan Croll has at last brought us his new album, Emerging Adulthood via Communion Music. Released in earlier this year in July, this sophomore album is authentic and catchy in all the ways we can trust Croll to be.
Gently walking the lines between genres, Emerging Adulthood is a bulb of electric energy filled with familiar hooks along with a depth in songwriting that feels even deeper than achieved in his first record.
It’s been quite a bit since Croll headlined NYC, his last show likely being his stripped down opening set for AURORA. This time, bringing along NYC-residents The Dig (another wonderful group with a penchant for straddling genres), Croll played to a packed crowd at Brooklyn Bazaar.
Playing tracks off of the new LP, it seemed that a lot of fans already knew all the words despite the short time the record had been released. Check out photos of the night and extras below.
Songwriter Dia Frampton dazzled the intimate crowd with her folk pop tunes last Wednesday at the Studio at Webster Hall. Family band Castro and folk singer Jesse Ruben opened the night up.
Frampton has been in the music scene for as long as I’ve been listening to music. That sounds dramatic, but her band with her sister, Meg & Dia, kept me sane during my developmental years. I remember meeting them both as a crazed teenager, asking them to sign almost every merch item I owned of theirs. As I watched Frampton grow as a musician, I grew along too, falling in and out of love with her songwriting as time passed.
She had, and still has, the incredible ability to make everyone in the room feel connected through her performances.
Her newest album Bruises was released earlier this year in March via Nettwerk Records.
Last month Tove Lo and Tkay Maidza graced NYC with a show at Irving Plaza for Gov Ball After Dark, just before kicking the festival weekend off. The intimate show was packed with fans and good vibes all night.
Aussie rapper Tkay Maidza kicked the show off with an explosive and energetic stage. Maidza has been playing tons of festivals this summer, each performance as fun as the next.
Swedish pop songstress Tove Lo drew a dedicated fan base, who sang every word with her as she gave her usual seductive performance.
UK-based indie pop duo Fenech-Soler graced the stage at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom a couple weeks ago, lighting up the venue with high energy and danceable tunes.
Knox Hamilton, an Arkansas-based rock band opened the night up and had the crowd dancing with their hands in the air early on.
Fenech-Soler's third studio album ZILLA was released earlier this year. As their largest headlining show to date in New York, the night was one of the brightest, most euphoric dance parties, with the crowd of fans singing along to the lyrics.
Let’s Eat Grandma is UK childhood friends Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth. Together, they brought their enchanting, avant-garde indie pop to NYC’s Rough Trade.
Brooklyn-based duo Letters to Nepal opened with a similarly ethereal set as their headliners, prepping the crowd for an artistic night indeed.
Let’s Eat Grandma began their set with a quick game of patty cake and expressionless faces, really establishing from the first moment, their mysterious and haunting persona. Their uniquely youthful vocals and decidedly creepy experimental quality in their songwriting was really engaging to see live, doubly effective with each passing second. We are keen to hear what else these young artists go from here.
UK based pop band Aquilo, aka Tom Higham and Ben Fletcher, graced the Bowery Ballroom for their first NYC headline show on Monday night with indie band YOKE LORE opening.
Having just arrived from SXSW, Fletcher arrived with a rather nasty cold but both still played a solid set in support of their debut LP, Silhouettes, released January 27th earlier this year.
Their dreamy soul pop brought in a large crowd of young women, mouthing each lyric with Higham as he crooned their emotive lyrics into the microphone. It was a soft, soulful performance with ethereal fog and lighting effects accompanying the show.
AFI are nothing short of legendary, being a huge part of the alternative rock scene since their beginnings in the 90s. They played New York’s Terminal 5 with Philly rock band Nothing & California emo band Souvenirs.
Seeing AFI live was incredible, with fans bearing their Despair Faction (AFI fan club) patches proudly in the front row, chanting “Through our bleeding, we are one!” while waiting for frontman Davey Havok to tear up the stage.
Souvenirs opened the night up with a proper set, revving up the crowd. Nothing took the stage second with a kind of crazed intensity that really spoke to the crowd, who were more than ready to have something to lose their shit to. Security was already herding photographers away from the barricades in preparation of crowd-surfers.
AFI opened the night with Miss Murder, one of their biggest hits, with the bass line sending the audience into an eruption I hadn’t ever seen before at a show. The rest of the night had energy that was impalpable, but so strong and present at the same time, with all members at full energy the entire night. Quite honestly one of the strongest live performances I will probably ever see in my lifetime.
Cloud Nothings and LVL UP played one hell of a show last week at NYC’s iconic Webster Hall. Celebrating their 5th LP release, Life Without Sound, Cloud Nothings have really become a staple in the indie rock community.
The crowd was incredibly diverse, full of young and old fans alike, all pushing against the barricade, excited for a night of high-energy rock.
LVL UP opened the night with a beautifully fuzzy set of tracks with elements of shoegaze and psych all rolling into a dirty package of indie rock.
Cloud Nothings continued the sound with their own performance, including new songs that took a slight different artistic direction than their past albums but we equally impactful.
Last Sunday, we caught Miserable, Kristina Esfandiari’s (Whirr, King Woman) shoegaze project at DIY venue Berlin. Opening for her was nü-wave project CARE as well as Cruel Angels, who describe themselves as “post-coital pop.”
CARE, aka Justin Majetich, opened the night up with an avant-garde and uniquely engaging performance. Cruel Angels played second in the small red-lit bar to a growing crowd of indie enthusiasts holding drinks.
Miserable played a luscious & heavy set, playing many songs off of her recent album Uncontrollable, released earlier last year in April. Her unique sound rooted in varied emotions is only even more emphasized by her poetic songwriting.
Last Friday we joined fans at Brooklyn Bazaar for indie pop act pronoun, JUDE. and Ben Talmi. pronoun’s sound can be described as a sort of dazzling, soft, but richly authentic dream pop.
Singer-songwriter Ben Talmi opened the night up with an energetic power pop set; fog-machine included. Duo JUDE. played second to a growing crowd, melted our hearts with a smooth synth set with ethereal vocals.
pronoun played a set of deeply truthful songs, providing a comfort to the crowd not from over positivity, but from elements of empathy. After the inauguration, hopelessness was an emotion we were all too familiar with, and a night of good music to remind us all that we are together is just what was needed.
Le Butcherettes — Girlpool — Deap Vally — The Menstruators — Chastity Belt — Gaby Dunn
With the inauguration upon us like an orange, soggy cloud, we sit back and remember a festival held in LA at the end of last year by Nadia G at the Regent Theatre. The entire night consisted of good food and dope music all from kickass women.
Comedian Gaby Dunn hosted the night, providing cheeky commentary before and after sets. Nadia’s own band, The Menstruators, took the stage after Chastity Belt, madly pulling up the energy in the venue. Other notable badass women artists such as Deap Vally and Girlpool played after, with Le Butcherettes rounding out the night for the massive pit of fans.
Last month I was in LA for a quick trip, and while my time there was short, I knew I had to catch surf rock group La Luz at their show at the El Rey theatre. Grunge punk rock band Feels opened with an electric and energetic performance, and the Cairo Gang opened the night up with a smooth retro set.
Last week, Pandora held their annual holiday show at Pier 36, headlined this year by quite possibly one of the most popular bands of 2016, The 1975. Boisterous indie pop band Bastille joined the line-up, along with pop singer Bishop Briggs opening up the night.
When the doors opened for this large warehouse party, fans stampeded into the venue, eager to grab a good spot so they could bask in the glow of their favorite semi-edgy pop singers. Bishop Briggs opened the night with an energetic set driven by her powerful & emotive vocals.
Pandora had its finger on the pulse to draw a big crowd this year, bringing in British band The 1975, who have received massively positive reviews from critics for their second LP release, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It. Even opener Bastille had enough popularity and stage presence to hold the crowd’s attention the entire night. With Wild World, their second LP release coming out in June earlier this year, this British pop group brought a strong performance that was really felt in waves throughout the crowd.
Bastille Frontman Dan Smith even left the stage for a bit during one of the first three songs, entering the sea of phone and people in the crowd, serenading them personally and intimately. By the time The 1975 took the stage, the audience was amped and ready to see Matty Healy, quite possibly one of the most fan-magnetic “handsome and tortured” musicians we have on the scene at the moment. Fans sang every word of every song reaching out towards the frontman as he lit a cigarette on stage.
Glass Animals — Preservation Hall Jazz Band — Madame Gandhi — Shilpa Ray
GOODFest is a livestream music festival presented by Pixel, the phone by Google. It is held in five different cities, each themed by a different good cause. Last week, we celebrated generosity with an intimate, stripped down set from Glass Animals. All proceeds from the night were donated to donorschoose.org.
GOODFest NYC was hosted by Madame Gandhi at BAM, and she began the night with some very inspiring words and a performance of a couple songs of her own. As each artist performed after, the good vibes were truly felt all around and the joy was really brought to fruition by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. They sang and played joyfully, encouraging the surrounding audience to clap, and there was not a single person who wasn’t smiling.
To see Glass Animals in such a small venue was a dazzling experience, and while their set was “stripped-back,” the impact of their sound was completely there. With the crowd singing along to every word, it seemed that they were enjoying themselves and the cause just as much as the rest of the room. This was one of the rare occasions where positivity is really brought together into a community of strangers. With the current political climate, GOODFest reminds us to love and to appreciate each other in this time of need.
Night 2 of STRFKR in NYC was easily just as, if not more euphoric than night 1. Celebrating the release of their 5th studio album, Being No One, Going Nowhere, these indie rock veterans lit up Webster Hall with one of the best live sets we’ve seen in awhile.
Armed with Gigamesh and Psychic Twin like the previous night, it felt like a totally different show at the much larger venue. The full effect of the dancers of Psychic Twin along with the music was felt in the atmosphere. Gigamesh was an all encapsulating act, giving the crowd dance track after track, keeping the energy up all through the night.
STRFKR’s setlist varied a little bit from the day before, which was great for others attending both nights like me, but also made it feel so much more spontaneous. Although there were plenty of crowd-surfers, confetti and the pink flamingo yesterday, it felt so much crazier with the huge balcony of everyone looking down on the filled pit of dancing people. There’s a kind of happiness and togetherness that can be found in seeing STRFKR live.
STRFKR brought their charismatic, experimental indie rock for two nights in NYC last week. The first show was at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, the smaller of the two venues that they were scheduled to play, which held many fans looking for a slightly more intimate show.
Psychic Twin opened the night off with an ethereal performance that can only be described as otherworldly indie pop. Erin Fein & Rosana Caban played a really special set with a full set of dancers dressed in all-white, encapsulating the whole venue in something truly unique. Gigamesh came out and brought on interesting visuals projected behind him while he played his extensively catchy pop songs.
The whole night up until this point already felt, as I said, otherworldly, but when STRFKR’s dancers sauntered onto the stage in astronaut gear, it was became really clear what kind of night we were in for. STRFKR played an extensive set with songs from each album, even including Golden Light. Frontman Josh Hodges was dressed in a flashy blue sequined dress with a tousled blonde wig, as if the crowd really needed other things to catch their attention. Confetti rained at intervals and drummer Keil Corcoran swapped with Hodges for a couple songs towards the end as well. People were crowd surfing, dancing, or just waving about; really enjoying a feel-good night that was probably long overdue for NYC.