New York – The Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel is barely a music venue. It’s mostly a swanky bar on the top floor of a trendy Meatpacking District hotel where tourists and new-money Manhattan-ites gather to preen and feel exclusive and eat frites, which is what you eat if you want to seem sophisticated but would still prefer to order off the kid’s menu. Before The Preatures played, the DJ played The Cramps’ trash-punk classic “Human Fly.” The Boom Boom Room is sleazy, but not that kind of sleazy; it’s more Studio 54 than CBGB. There’s a little stage, but there’s only enough space between the stage and the huge horseshoe bar for people to stand two deep. There are seats next to the stage that face the opposite direction. There are many things to look at besides a band: the beautiful people, the white-jacketed bartenders who pour and mix with a flourish, and the 270-degree views of Manhattan, the Hudson River, and New Jersey.
But then The Preatures took the stage, and they were instantly the coolest people in the room. They had come all the way from Sydney, Australia to play a half hour set (I mean, they’re on tour, so they weren’t just here for the equivalent of an episode of New Girl and then on their way). They are four men, with long, greasy hair, immaculate stubble, and leather jackets, and one woman, Isabella Manfredi, who was cooler than maybe anyone else in Manhattan that night.
Manfredi is a charismatic frontwoman in the vein of Debbie Harry or Chrissie Hynde or Gwen Stefani. The band revolves around her. Onstage at the Standard Hotel, she was wearing black overalls and a white shirt. She has black hair with bangs in front and pigtails in back. It would be a childish look, but Isabella Manfredi is not a child, she’s a boss. The lighting in the bar flattered her cheekbones and made her look like a warrior. During “Ordinary,” she took a fighter stance and pounded her chest. She shares her microphone with the guitarists when they sing backup vocals. She runs in place like Flashdance. She managed to get a room full of narcissists to pay attention to her.
But what about the music? Well, it’s crowd-pleasing party music that takes from the best parts of pop-rock from the 70s and 80s. There’s a very strong New Wave influence, and Manfredi owes a huge debt vocally to Mosquito-era Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, whose stanky vocal-fry yell she often employs.
The rest of the band is solid, too. They’re a tight, highly proficient unit. The Preatures are stylistically similar to Phoenix, making slick pop rock that has a throwback patina but uses state-of-the-art production techniques. They make a magpie’s nest of pilfered shiny riffs, the bassline from “Sweet Emotion” here, the pre-chorus from “Boys of Summer” there. It’s not original, but originality is overrated when you’re this good at mining the past.
The Preatures are touring through America through the end of March and beginning of April to promote their 2014 effort Blue Planet Eyes, and then returning home to Australia, where they’ll be featured on the Groovin’ the Moo traveling festival.
Keep an eye out for Best New Bands’ interview with frontwoman Isabella Manfredi in the coming days, where she talks about growing up with 80s music and much more.
For more on The Preatures, go to their Facebook page.
Liam Mathews
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