I saw Wolf Parade play back in June at Pianos. At that time, the hype machine was just getting geared up, and their justifiably praised Apologies to the Queen Mary had yet to be released. They were missing Hadji on the sampler/therimin/keys and were admittedly drunk, but still showed immense promise. Last night, they were yet again admittedly drunk, but had their full band plus and unnamed ‘5th member’ who played an odd stand up percussion kit which included a drum, tambourine and a couple of wind chimes. He also had a bass slung around his neck which was played half the time with his drum stick.
The first thing I noticed about the music as they launched into their set was how loose the band was. Not that their album is an entirely polished affair, but their live set was a raucous, cacacophy of sound. The dualing percussion, swirling samples and therimin, and most notably the vocal interplay of keyboardist Spencer Krug and guitarist Dan Boeckner gave their material much more of an edge than on record. They played nearly all the fan favorites with the exception of ‘Grounds for Divorce’. Despite constant requests for it from the audience, Krug finally quipped towards the end “Dude, it’s just not going to happen”. The encore included a new song, and closed with a stunning version of ‘Dinner Bells’, which more than made up for it. In all, they played three new songs that definitely held up to their recorded material, proving these guys are definitely living up to the hype. Brooklynvegan has some pics and another review.
: Wolf Parade - Shine a Light :
: Wolf Parade - You are a Runner :
Cool. Yeah I’m hoping they come out west sometime, but it looks like that was their last show in the US before they head out to Europe for a while. Hopefully someone over there will record some of those new songs for us.
[…] Seeing a show at NYU was kinda weird. The auditorium at the Kimmel Center was acually pretty big. I would compare it to the Bowery Ballroom in size, but with much less character. I think this was the first rock show I’ve been to where no beer is served. Given the merit of the bill, the night was surprisingly undersold, I’d say 60% attendance. I suppose everyone that really wanted to see Wolf Parade already saw them on Monday or Tuesday. The Honey Brothers, self described as “NYC’s Hawaiian Appalachian Glam Rock Band” surprised me only when I recognized the drummer was Adrian Grenier of HBO’s Entourage fame. The music wasn’t particularly smart (which is where the appalachian part comes in i guess). Driven by a ukulele, their folksy, bluesy music was a little to straightforward for my liking. You can listen to music samples for yourself on their myspace page. […]
[…] 4. Wolf Parade - Bowery Ballroom 10/24 Lived up to the hype in their first major NYC show. Showed glimpses of more greatness to come, debuting 3 new songs. […]