Versus headed up Philippines Benefit at Shea BK
On a chilly & wet night last Saturday, in the warehouse district of East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the stage had been set for a truly epic show entitled the Benefit for the Philippines, at the intimate upstairs clandestine venue called Shea Stadium BK. It was a fundraiser for the relief efforts in the Philippines, aiding the victims of the horrific Typhoon Haiyan that stuck last year. It was, by any standards, a huge success, raising over $1500 for the American Red Cross Typhoon Relief Effort, and sported a huge helping of local musical star power for a long night of heavy rocking and jubilant fun. All the bands playing through the night had a direct link to the Pilipino community, and that turns out to include many of my favorite local bands.
The show was opened by the airy yet darkly themed shoegaze ambiance of Let’s Be Loveless. Helmed by the wistful voice and moody keyboards of Abby Camaya, and artfully backed by the big bald man on bass thumping and bounding about by the name Christopher Whalen, Eric Arikian wailing on lead guitars, and Gary Elliot on drums, together forming a sound drifting somewhere between the dark synthy sounds of Siouxsie and the Banshees and the cutely catchy rock of The Sundays. There were many songs in their set that stood out and stayed with you, like the single "Assassination," and songs off last year’s self-titled EP like the sweetly dreamy love jam “Video Song,” the bopping “Motivational Speaker,” and the chopping of “Star Matter,” but also many newer and much darker and more foreboding tracks like a new one ‘about unhealthy relationships’ (as Abby claimed beforehand) called “Hostages” that really blew me away, as did a number of other new songs with ominous names like “A Boy's Irrational Bedtime Fears,” and “Death to the Moon,” not to mention a cover of the Misfits’ “Skulls,” which sounded as though Camera Obscura decided dive into classic punk, creating a truly delicious paradox in sound.
The Planes are an excellent punk/pop quartet that gets that adrenaline pumping fast and hard. Singer/guitarist/songwriter Stephen Perry heads up the band with a fervent energy twisting and contorting to the epically hard and raw solos and really bringing on a pumping sweat to the show, as Jeff Patlingrao slams those drums with a slick fervor. Their set spanned their catalog, from their recent lengthy and raunchy release of Echo Forever/Forever Echo like their opener of classic warbling punk sounds reminiscent of Cro-Mags and the Clash called “X-Rays,” or the creepy crawling snarl of "The Sea And The Enemy Beneath" from their self-titled 2011 album, and their all fun debut single that reminds me a lot of classic Violent Femmes called “Sleeping Contest” as their closer, and it was all great fun!
Sadly, this was one of the last shows for one of Brooklyn’s finest bands Quiet Loudly, who released one of my favorite albums of 2012 called Go Into the Light Smiling, that amongst subjects of death, loss, love, and cynicism really found the band at a highly mature musical level. Still, speaking with the band’s lead singer and guitarist Max Goransson before hand, he admitted that the loss of their guitarist Anthony Aquilino (also a member of Gunfight! and Miniboone), who is moving to Philadelphia, would change the band’s sound to much to think of it going on with the same name, especially as their amazing keyboardist John Weingarten is already MIA. Still the ever-charismatic drummer Sal Garro (who also plays with a plethora of other bands), Max, Anthony, and a newer bassist Jonathan Pilkington Kahnt rocked on for this night, along with, as Max put it, “we’ve adopted a Pilipino baby,” pow wow!’s keyboardist Geoffrey Ingram stepped in to tickle the ivories. If you’ve never seen or heard Quiet Loudly before, their sound shakes you like a plane ready to take off, ascends through air with gorgeous soaring harmonies, and takes you into a gorgeous landing with powerful rhythm changes culpable to the complexities of progressive rock with a rawer drive of bare-fisted heart surgery. They opened with the epic “It’s Not The End Of The World” from that recent masterpiece, along with older deeper and wailing tracks like “Lift this Mountain” from 09’s Soulgazer, which Max claimed before hand “is sure to bum you out,” and even stuck in a cover of Yo La Tengo’s “From A Motel 6,” which will apparently end up on a soon to be released cover album of songs chosen exclusively by their good friends.
Crazy Pills is another of my fav local bands, and they charmed and rocked like they never fail to do every time I see them. They also just released their first full-length album aptly entitled Restless, which I declare a necessary listen for all those ready to dance it out the demons with some good old-fashion fun rock. I must say, that they always reminded me of classic 50’s R&B rock swing, just mixed in with some 70’s early Blondie doo-wop punk, 80’s Pretenders’ anthem catchiness, and a newer punk drive. Lead singer and scorching guitarist Amanda really does bring on the power of the confident empowered femme fetal frontwoman, and her shuffling feet moves can really make you dizzy. Also, she now is armed with a new board of new petals that bring a further organ splitting gravitas to her wall of guitar sound. Jim Wood (also of Clouder and many other local outfits) really ranks as one of the best drummers on the local scene as he drives and rolls through the best rhythm changes out there, and her right-hand man Edward Anthony (also of pow wow!) kills it consistently on earth-shaking bass. They have so many truly memorable tracks in their repertoire that’s it’s hard to pick favorites, the slick finger-snapping bop of “Alright,” the snarling stomp of “Indictment,” or the tender ballad with a smooth drive that summons memories of Christie Hyne called “Trudy June,” which Amanda dedicated to her mother who was in the audience, or even the swinging jam of “Nothing But Love” as the closer, it was all just purrrfect.
As amazing as all the other bands were already this night, it was pow wow! that really got the people in the then packed party pad dancing ecstatically with their franticly direct and diversely fun rock sound barely able to contain explosions of catchy pop choruses, 80’s new wave danceability, bluegrass twang, country howls, and a punk energy unbridled. In this band Edward Anthony switches to lead guitar and vocals, and his taste for great sounds and movement really delivers, as Sal returns on drums, and Jeff to keys (and some lead vocals), and the towering Manny took center stage as bassist. There were some slight mic malfunctions, but nothing seemed to slow down the set, drawn mostly from their Don't Stop To Look LP, which is also a required listen if you want to play with the big boys, like the dance-a-rific title track, and “Found” that also had a distinctly classic 80’s catchiness, “Ghosts” that got the hillbilly swing going on through everyone's feet, an older track from ‘06 called “The Devil Came To Me” with a Buddy Holly swing appeal, and they even threw in a obscure cover of the Brit punk/new wave group Only Ones song “Another Girl, Another Planet” for true awesomeness. The closer of another older track called “23 19” reminded me of the heyday of the Strokes with that reverb-heavy fuzziness that just makes you all warm inside while making you sweat with adrenaline highs.
Still, the true surprise of the night was actually the headliner: the 90’s indie rock greats Versus, who reunited for a one-off show for this very special benefit. The Filipino-American brothers Richard and Edward Baluyut are still in command as founding guitaring/druming virtuosos, and the third brother James Baluyut has apparently returned after a lengthy hiatus to also guitar, and Versus is still largely fronted by Fontaine Toups on bass (with Richard doing some other songs), so it really appears to be the founding group back in charge. Although they did originate in 1990 starting with just Richard and Fontaine, they put out a treasure trove of albums throughout that decade, just braking up after 2001 to pursue other endeavors, although they did reform after almost 10 years round 2008, but since then, it’s been revolving memberships and anyone’s guess how or if they might reform again. Now we know, as this night they actually brought on many new tracks, like the spooky “Mumified” and the catchy “Secrets,” many of which seemed sparsely rehearsed, others some fans in attendance had heard them play somewhat recently. As an example of the newness of some, before one of them Richard said to the audience, “We’re gonna baffle you with some new songs,” to which Fountaine said warily “Oh really, what are they? I really am baffled right now. Really, what are we playing again?” as she shuffled through piles of sheet music of the new songs at her feet. Still, their rocking power that put that turned the grunge-era upside-down still blared aloud and proud with classics like "Let's Electrify" and "My Adidas" that rocked us well into the we hours of the morning. If only all benefit shows could be as much fun as this one, none would ever have trouble raising money!
