New York – Cat Casual and The Other Lovers kicked off the night, with a classic rock n’ roll noir sound that could easily be on a soundtrack to a Jim Jarmush film. It doesn’t’ hurt that frontman and songwriter William Benton is a dead ringer for Tom Waits in Down by Law – which has been said before and will most likely be pointed out again, because it’s really that uncanny – but it also doesn’t hurt that Benton has the chops and the delivery to back it all up, along with The Other Lovers. This was their first live show, and the remarkable cohesion in the band along with the impressive early turnout created an energy in the room that made it a stellar debut.
The Meaning of Life followed, who have been around the BestNewBands.com block since this past summer during Northside. The Brooklyn-based trio wrapped us all up tightly in their dream-pop arms, with Marta’s velvety croon floating over the top, as she sang that we’re like gloves inside and made us feel that’s it’s true from this suddenly growing glowing radiation of sound waves, creating a haze all around the room.
Queens trio Dead Waves inversed that feel, with a noise punk post-hardcore rampage of a set. Vocalist/bassist Teddy Panopoulos’ growling screams switched up with his brother and guitarist Nick’s melodic vocal lines, especially on songs like “Big Fish,” off their Take Me Away EP released this past December. The drums toppled over and spilled out onto the stage at the end of the last song, and for a second they all looked like they were about to wreck everything. But after the last throb of feedback, all their deep inner expressions had already burst forth in a torrent of rock so the natural progression was to step back and take a breath after such honest, alive, and heavy as hell output.
The heavy riffs with spazzed out frenzy continued with Old Monk, who again delivered a super fun and rocked out set of punk played with prog-rock precision. These guys are regulars both on BNB.com and at Matchless, so the songs were familiar but still fresh, infused with newer tunes like “Holiday,” and once again I heard from people seeing them for the first time about how impressive the band was. Even though the drum set still seemed to want to explode apart (perhaps after getting liberated into the air by Dead Waves), frontman/guitarist Josh Carrafa, drummer Ian Burns, and the impossibly cool Tsugumi Takashi on bass all held it down – literally – and left the space buzzing long after the last note.
Photo By Brandy Coons
