Summer Music Report, Pt. 1

Tonight's show at the Bowery Ballroom was probably the most pleasant I can ever remember having attended. For one, I really liked the space: It sounded great (good acoustics AND a good system), and I liked how the journey through the basement bar to the main area at ground level gave the sensation of being deep inside the building even though the sidewalk just on the other side of the back wall. Also, after going to shows for years in Seattle and Minneapolis, I'm very pleased to be in a city with clubs that provide air conditioning in the summer.

Beach House started up just as I got there. They actually sounded fine in the downstairs section, though once I found the entrance I heard most of their set from the main floor (didn't try the balcony). They played some new stuff which sounded as wonderfully blissed out as the songs from their first album.

The Clientele were basically just as I'd hoped they'd be; I feel like their show now is probably a little more lively than back when they'd only recorded the really quiet stuff on Suburban Light and The Violet Hour. Mel Draisey, the only female member of the band, received a couple birthday cakes in recognition of her 24th. [What are the dynamics like for her in a band otherwise consisting solely of thirtysomething males?] They closed with a Television cover which I didn't recognize ("The Fire" from 1978's Adventure), though I was completely unsurprised at the choice of band as Alasdair MacLean pulled out a guitar solo near the end of the set proper that sounded a lot like the serpentine climax of "Marquee Moon," maybe from a track on the new album. Surprisingly, it was the first time since seeing Television on the bill for Central Park next Saturday that I recalled the night a couple summers back when the brilliance of that album and particularly the title track suddenly exploded upon me in its fearsome glory.

This will leave LCD Soundsystem as my favorite unseen band, by probably a fairly wide margin, though I'll have to get back to you on that.

Last weekend I saw Animal Collective at South Street Seaport, which was a less than ideal location, but it was exciting to hear the wealth of new material they played (lots of bass, hi-hat, and synthesizer) and to be outside. I also caught the performance of Brian Eno's Music for Airports at the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center, a large ovoid atrium. The experience really improved when I left the seats at ground level and laid down at the top of the stairs to stare at the ceiling.