Avi Buffalo Charms Fans At Manhattan’s Mercury Lounge

Avi Buffalo live

New York – Kicking off an early show at Manhattan’s much-loved Mercury Lounge the other night, Avi Buffalo charmed fans with an hour-long set of melody-heavy, rambling tracks. True to this act’s quietly electric identity, the night was both intimate and moving, and offered a perfect pre-weekend mind state to the work-weary New Yorkers who found their way to the city’s restless lower east side.

Avi Zahner-Isenberg fronts the band, and is joined by Sheridan Riley, Doug Brown and Anthony Vezirian. Avi Buffalo released their self-titled debut EP in 2010 via Sub Pop and subsequently surfaced with At Best Cuckold earlier this year. Zahner-Isenberg, a California native, is talented beyond his years and serves up alt-indie experimentalism laced with emotionally available lyricism. Thursday night’s performance followed a day after this wunderkind’s 24th birthday, and the crowd in attendance happily joined in celebrating the occasion with a great deal of audible accolade.

Taking the stage at 9PM, following the delightfully dulcet Australian outfit High Highs, the band struck wordlessly into “So What,” a standout track from their latest release. “We’re going to get right through this one,” Zahner-Isenberg then addressed his audience, after a brief anecdote about the band’s pre-show culinary adventures (during which time it came to light that the band’s bassist happens to be a proud vegetarian). Next up was “Can’t Be Too Responsible,” another favorite off this act’s latest album.

Then, the band cycled through “Memories Of You,” before offering up a particularly stunning live incarnation of “Remember Last Time.” The former is a cut off the band’s debut record, a poppy track that posits all the unknowable questions of a heart-wrenched union.

In fact, at his best, Zahner-Isenberg often welds together deeply personal rumination with accessible melodizing. The product is exploratory, sonically and thematically, and establishes the illusion of self-discovery under wholly authentic conditions. Listening to Zahner-Isenberg’s work feels like reading someone else’s diary, whose last page is unattainable, but every sentence offers up an unfiltered, tell-all reflection on entirely relatable sentiments.

Perhaps, the night’s pinnacle performance was Avi Buffalo’s “What’s It In For?” This cut made serious waves when it first surfaced, and was largely responsible for locking in a wide-flung fan base early on. A live showing of the track unequivocally appeased the crowd’s appetite quite unlike any other of the evening’s deliveries.

Dialing down the atmospheric energy, Zahner-Isenberg excused his band mates to perform two acoustic variations on “Drowned In Sound” and “Two Cherished Understandings.” These he played seated, and the audience mirrored the hushed quietness with undulling dedication.

After rejoining their front man, the full band performed “Memories Of You,” a track that leans more heavily on percussive support than its brother cuts, and calls to mind the psychedelic soundscapes of yesteryear’s intoxicating rock scene.

The band exited the stage abruptly, but reemerged almost instantaneously in a coy charade of prematurely ditching their audience. The encore consisted of a lone Zahner-Isenberg on the keyboard, performing an alluring spin on “She Is Seventeen.”

All told, the night was a solid representation of what fans have come to love most about this act: an effervescent and ever-artful display of inwardness. Keep all eyes peeled for whatever Avi Buffalo plans to offer up next, likely another album on the horizon. Until then, seek out any and all opportunities to catch the band in action.

For a listing of Avi Buffalo’s exhaustive list of tour dates, go HERE.
Liz Rowley

Liz Rowley

Born in Mexico and raised in Toronto, Jerusalem and Chicago by a pair of journalists, Liz comes to BestNewBands.com with an inherited love of writing. After discovering a niche for herself in music journalism and radio while at Bates College in Maine, she always keeps a running playlist of new music to soundtrack her place in the world. Liz is passionate about helping dedicated, talented musicians gain the exposure they deserve. A recent transplant to Brooklyn from Hawaii, she is plagued by an incurable case of wanderlust and cursed with an affinity for old maps and old things like typewriters and vintage books. She adores photography and running and is very good with plants. Having come of age in Chicago, Wilco speaks to her soul. If she could be anything, she would be a cat in a Murakami novel.
Liz Rowley