Last night, Delicate Steve and Akron/Family took to the stage of a sold-out Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, NY. The room was an eclectic mix of hipsters, music aficionados and indie-rock fans (sometimes as the same person). Delicate Steve, or the 23-year-old virtuoso also known as Steve Marion, recently burst onto the scene with the impressive (mostly) instrumental debut: Wondervisions, and Akron/Family have just released a highly energetic roller-coaster of a record (a title of which you should just look up. Trust me.)

Steve released the LP in February and has garnered all kinds of praise for it: from SPIN and NPR to the New York Times. He recently discussed the motivation for his song, “Butterfly” in our BackStory feature, which you can read HERE.

 

But the show itself was part-musical performance, part-outer body experience, and part-art exhibition.

Akron/Family continue to be a dependable and welcome part of the experimental rock scene. Their show, which incorporating seamless improvisation, multiple instruments, a clap-along and one of the most entertaining encores I’ve ever seen (a woodwind trio and sharpie art on t-shirts during the performance!), Akron/Family built up the crowd, rather than ever allowing them to slowly wind down and burn out by the end of the evening.

The standing-only crowd were enraptured from start to finish, as the musical stylings of Delicate Steve illuminated the venue. The full-band sound of that LP is an incredible, reiveting listen. Both bands were particularly successful in the execution of their game plans; sounding incredibly full, and almost bursting at the seams with new and engaging sounds.

I’d highly recommend anyone who can see either of the bands on tour, do so immediately (you can find Delicate Steve and Akron/Family playing all dates together through 4/9), but for those who want to try and catch them, here’s Steve’s schedule and Akron/Family’s schedule, which includes another NYC date in early March at the Bowery Ballroom. Tickets will certainly sell out for that date as well, so if you can grab them now, while they’re still available.

While I must admit, electronically-originated guitar stories told on stage and experimental/instrumental folk-inspired jam sessions are certainly not for everyone, it was definitely perfect and more than enough entertainment for Brooklyn last night.