Skaters Brought A Juicy Taste Of The Big Apple To Bardot

Los Angeles — For anyone in need of losing their mind, these Brooklynites can mash the brain up just right.

Fresh off the release of their debut album, Manhattan, there is no doubt Skaters come from the streets of Brooklyn, New York with songs about endless nights of debauchery in The City That Never Sleeps. Still, while their new record is all about navigating the very specific grimy boroughs as a hard-partying 20-something, the street urchins are on their way to garnering global success after signing with Warner Bros. Records.

Lead singer/songwriter Michael Ian Cummings yanked the mic and hit the stage with a brood of tattooed and tattered band mates. Despite an issue with the speakers making fan favorites like “One Of Us” indecipherable, the sea of devotees didn’t seem to mind as they feverishly head banged along during the noisy introduction. What was Cummings to do when he was forced to stop playing so the tech team could fix the speaker snafu? Light up a cigarette and chug a few Coronas for the crowd, of course.

After a slurred rendition of “Happy Birthday” for their British transplant guitarist, Josh Hubbard, the magnetic mayhem continued with “Deadbolt”. It then became evident that there were noticeable and aggressive differences to the live version on Manhattan. Cummings growled instead of howled and drummer Noah Rubin didn’t just bang, he thrashed so hard it was a surprise he didn’t rupture his kit. Not to mention, even though the 11-track album explodes with clever quips, it sadly doesn’t include Hubbard slashing at his guitar with a lit cigarette hanging from his mouth either.

With a mix of The Strokes’ blitz and The Clash’s chaos, the crew unleashed the joyful clattering of “Wanna Dance (But I Don’t Know How)” and “Schemers”. As Cummings snarled about “devils in the margins of crimson walls,” the peak of the riot shockingly came when a guest guitarist— with a baby face and slicked hair — jumped merrily on the drum set as he strummed. The anarchic move was so infectious that the intimate audience almost began moshing and crowd surfing until the calming effect of “Band Breaker” began. The closing reggae-esque song still had Cummings singing about life in NYC’s underbelly, but there was an easy curling of sound, unlike the rest of the jams. If each song before was a swig of whiskey, “Band Breaker” was the woozy recovery.

While there is nothing pristine about a Skaters performance, it’s that maniacal frenzy that makes them so lovable. The gang of hipster hooligans has achieved an abrupt success, but they have yet to clean up their scruff and it’s hopeful they never will.

Want to party with the punks? Visit Skaters’ website (http://www.skatersnyc.com/) to stream Manhattan and read about the latest band news.

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Ariela Kozin

Ariela was born and raised on Los Angeles' creative hunger and booming sounds. She grew up humming the Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan records her mother played on repeat until a driver's license gave her the freedom to obsessively explore the live music scene. It only seemed natural that when Ariela went to journalism school, she paired her love of writing with her passion for discovering amazing new music.