Round-up of New York live music.

Incredibly enough, I'm now in midway of my New York experience. Although tomorrow marks the beginning of my 7th week at the UN, I still have difficulties telling people what I'm exactly working on there. The work part will most likely be easiest to wrap up after I've finished my internship, so that will have to wait. But something I would like to share at this point are my musical encounters here in New York. I will just list them here, by date, place and performer, with a few comments on each of them and links (MySpace or homepages), if available.

Tue 30th September, Garage restaurant (West Village): un-known jazz band.
My first live music experience in New York was in this restaurant/bar offering free jazz concerts every night. Not bad. I liked the atmosphere (not too classy, not too hipster); the band whose name I have already forgotten played enjoyable jazz, nothing too unique, but just nice.

Wed 1st October, Drom (East Village): Ansambl Mastika & Watcha Clan.
One day after I saw two bands playing at a DROMA Gypsy Festival: Ansambl Mastika from Brooklyn and Watcha Clan from Marseille. France beat the US 1-0 this time, Watcha Clan were way more inventive, more diverse and more charismatic. The place was half-empty, unfortunately, which made the atmosphere quite lame - this band should've performed on a Saturday night when people are really going out and ready to dance. Great fun still!

Wed 8th October, Public Assembly (Williamsburg): Tam Lin, Sleepwalkers Parade.
There were three artists/bands performing for a very scarce crowd of people. Weekdays seem to be hard for music clubs in New York, too...anyway, if you're into mellow singer-songwriter / man-and-a-guitar thing, Tam Lin might suit your likings. Besides music, he also writes a very thoughtful blog that I can highly recommend. The second band I don't even want to mention because they were so bad, but the third one was an intriguing group called Sleepwalkers Parade, leaning strongly on their eccentric vocalist who reminded me a bit of Kate Bush.

Fri 10th October, Hammerstein Ballroom (Midtown West): Grizzly Bear, The National.
The evening was organized as the 40th anniversary of the New York magazine, but the reason I went there was to see The National. Not that the warm-up band Grizzly Bear was bad - it felt like we traveled in time to the 70s for a long progressive music trip. After them, the National was just mind-blowing, and I regretted not listening to them more than a few songs in Ruisrock last summer (had to run for the Interpol gig starting right after - why put two Brooklyn bands to play just after one another?!?). The last song stack especially to my mind, Mr. November (the best YouTube version I could find from two years ago), the final song in their album Alligator (2005) which I had to buy just to get this song. The live version is much more furious and full of energy than the one on album, especially because of the singer Matt Berninger's slightly neurotic, twitching movements and running around the stage. An amazing concert. (Photo not mine, stolen from another blog)



Fri 17th October, Music Hall of Williamsburg: And The Moneynotes, Walter Meego, Ra Ra Riot
When I noticed that Oxfam America, part of the huge international NGO Oxfam International offers volunteering possibilities in concerts, I signed up for one during my internship. Many big names, such as Coldplay or Wilco invite Oxfam to their concerts, but for me, only this one fit my schedule. I got a call few days earlier and off I went to collect names in a petition against climate change to be given for the next president of the US. Besides collecting signatures, we told about the work of Oxfam in general and distributed informational material on climate change. I blurbed out some really shameful sentences, like "climate change causes many bad things allover the world". What?!? I can only console myself that perhaps I have been listening to too many electoral debates here with politicians saying these monstrous simplifications on the state of the world. Now I kind of understand them: when you're pressured to say something quickly on these big issues, you end up saying nothing at all. Oh well, it was an interesting experience...

I heard the whole gig of the first band, And The Moneynotes (from Scranton, Pennsylvania) and was not very impressed by their songs. Then I went to see a couple of their songs live and wow: they were really having fun on the stage, and so was the crowd. A party band playing mixture of country, tango and whatever that I would not dream of listening to at home, but it works live. The second warm-up band was Walter Meego (from Chicago), definitely worth checking out if all this hip electro-rock-pop sounds good to you. The main act, then, was Ra Ra Riot (from Syracuse), apparently a hot new act right now, going to tour in Europe soon - and how could a band with violins on stage be anything else than cool? Not surprisingly they have been compared to the Arcade Fire, amongst others. Summed up: evening full of hip people watching these hip bands in a very hip concert venue!

Sat 25th October, The Shrine (Harlem): Dawn Drake & ZapOte, Chicago Afrobeat Project.
Yesterday I ventured out in the rain to a cozy place in Harlem, not too far from my home. The entrance was free, it was warm inside and the bands were playing soul/afrobeat/Brazilian music. First band, Dawn Drake & ZapOte played different music styles and quite basic stuff, whereas the second band, Chicago Afrobeat Project relied heavily on Fela Kuti's material - just mixing new and old a bit, having someone to rap on afrobeat, for example.

Any day in almost any subway station.
As a final note I must add that I have seen some of the most innovative and talented musical acts in subway tunnels. There are amazing musicians out there, most often in Union Square or Times Square stations: everything from big jazz groups to singers, violinists, comedians and dancers. I've stumbled already twice on to this guy, Michael Shulman, playing both cover songs and his own songs with an electrified violin. When I stopped to listen to him last time, other long-time fans began talking to me (as it often happens in New York): I was told that his version of Britney Spears' Hit me baby one more time is excellent. Quick search in YouTube gives dozens of matches, including this Britney song or these versions of Enjoy the Silence / Can't Get you Out of My Head. You must agree with me that this guy has a sense of drama. Tight, black spandex trousers, wild dance moves and a violin with blinking lights - what else could you wish for?

Sooo...this is it, so far. There are still loads of small joints in Lower East Side that I want to check out, and some famous ones (Bowery Ballroom for example) that I haven't been to yet. Not to forget all the places in Brooklyn, too - funnily enough, most of these bands / artists mentioned here reside in Brooklyn. NONE of the bands based in New York admit that they would live on the Manhattan side. I guess it rocks only in Brooklyn - or it might simply be the fact that the apartment rents are affordable enough there for the musicians. It's a hard living, especially in such a competitive environment as New York. I guess I have to keep on going to their concerts and support them!

EDIT on Mon 28th, 9.54 pm: last addition!
Of course I forgot at least one concert in New York: a great klezmer concert last Thursday in a charming venue called Jalopy, also functioning as a music school and an instrument shop in Brooklyn. The band was called Metropolitan Klezmer and awfully good - it was such a pity that they were like 8 people on stage, and we were 4 in the audience, which meant that we got only one set instead of two. A great experience anyway, and hopefully I'll catch the band later for a whole show...