Category Archives: Punk

Liars, Fucked Up, High Places play the Northside Festival in Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Posted on June 30, 2010 | Leave a comment

Liars closed out Saturday night's Northside Festival show. (Photos copyright 2010, Steven P. Marsh)

The Northside Festival in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, seemed an odd affair. The music was presented on a small, chain-link-fence-enclosed patch of blacktop on the waterfront at the apex of Commercial and Dupont streets. It was a very unlikely looking place for a music venue.

Little Liars: Liars singer Angus Andrew's niece and nephew grooved vigorously to the noise rock.

But looks are often deceiving, and this festival, sponsored by L Magazine, proved no exception to that notion. The Saturday night show, only the second rock show ever hosted at the Newtown Barge Terminal Playground, as the site is officially named, featured Liars as headliners with Fucked Up and High Places as openers. It was fantastic.  The only shame was that so few people came out for it. The venue appeared to be at half capacity at best, even if you counted the freeloaders who took in a virtually unobstructed view from just outside the venue’s fence.

The music was great. Although I went to hear Fucked Up, a Toronto band that is one of the most energetic punk units active today, I was pretty impressed by the other acts as well.

Liars kept the crowd entranced for a long set of noise rock with the vocal stylings of Angus Andrew.

Freeloaders: It was easy to see and hear the whole show without paying a dime.

But Fucked Up really blew the place up, with singer Damian Abraham’s crowd-hugging and can-smashing antics in addition to mind-blowingly fast and loud songs.

They say a picture’s worth 1,000 words. With Fucked Up, a picture’s worth twice that. So take in these visuals:

Fucked Up arrives onstage with Damian chewing up and spitting out pages of he Northside Festival program booklet.

Fucked Up on stage.

Damian crushes his first can of the night.

Damian tries a 40.

Click through to the jump for many more amazing photos of Fucked Up and the other opener, High Places.
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Posted in Concerts, Music, Pop and Rock, Punk

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Care Bears on Fire playing Nassau Coliseum

Posted on February 9, 2010 | Leave a comment

Care Bears on Fire, Izzy, Sophie and Jena (from left) rock Cake Shop on Saturday afternoon. (Photos copyright 2009, Steven P. Marsh)

Amazingly fun teen pop-punkers Care Bears on Fire pulled together the second in their series of Saturday afternoon showcases on Feb. 6 at Cake Shop on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The tiny basement club is a perfect place for the girls to work on their sound and snarl in front of hardcore fans and with little to distract them from the music.

Things will be very differen this Saturday, when CBoF is on the Pop-Con bill at Nassau Coliseum opening for riot-inducing kiddie pop star Justin Bieber. Saturday’s show is probably one for parents to drop off their children and pick them up later. It’s not the kind of show that even I, a hardcore CBoF fan, will probably be able to tolerate. But it’s a great opportunity for the high-energy trio. And you can catch their next Let Them Eat Cake show at Cake Shop, 152 Ludlow St., on the Lower East Side on Saturday, March 6.

Check out more photos of the Cake Shop show and the other bands that performed at the showcase to benefit Haiti after the jump. Continue reading →

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Posted in Benefit, Concerts, Music, News, Pop and Rock, Punk

Stew sez: The Negro Problem is touring this fall!

Posted on February 8, 2010 | Leave a comment

Stew and Heidi perform as The Broadway Problem at Lincoln Center Out of Doors last summer. (Copyright 2009, Steven P. Marsh)

Deep in his critique of the New York Magazine‘s piece about his upcoming show Making It, composer and bon vivant Stew lets drop a little bomb that is sure to please his fans, especially those outside of New York City: “The Negro Problem will be on tour this Fall.”

Stew, is that a promise? Or a tease? Let’s hope it’s the former.

Some form of The Negro Problem —  with Stew and Heidi Rodewald at the core but under names like The Broadway Problem — has played around NYC in the last year. But fans elsewhere have had to rely on the movie version of Passing Strange (on the big screen, on PBS, On Deman, or on DVD) to get anything resembling a TNP fix. So this is nothing but good news.

More on Making It, which begins its six-show run at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Dumbo, Brooklyn on Feb. 17, will follow. I just wanted to get this tidbit on the table.

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Posted in Music, News, Pop and Rock, Punk, Theater

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Asphalt comes indoors

Posted on January 7, 2010 | Leave a comment

Asphalt Orchestra debuted at last summer's Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival. (Photos copyright 2009, Steven P. Marsh)

Asphalt Orchestra, my very favorite avant-garde marching band — okay, I admit, it’s the only avant-garde marching band I know — high-steps it indoors tonight at Lincoln Center for a free show.

“We’re playing everything we’ve ever played — plus two new arrangements,” promises Asphalt saxophonist Ken Thomson.That means music by Frank Zappa, Meshuggah, Bjork, Tom Ze, Thomas Mapfumo, Stew and Heidi Rodewald, Goran Bregovic, Tyondai Braxton (of Battles), Charles Mingus and Conlon Nancarrow. Whew!

This is the only show the band — created by Bang on a Can for last summer’s the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festiva — will be doing in NYC until the summer. And, while Asphalt is probably best seen and heard outdoors, marching up and down bleachers and wandering around the Lincoln Center campus, it’s a big plus that tonight’s show is indoors!

The show is scheduled to begin at 8:30 tonight in David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, on Broadway between West 62nd and West 63rd streets, just east of the Plaza in the former Harmony Atrium space. It’s a perfect gateway to the arts center, with visitor information on all Lincoln Center tenants, a ticket office offering day-of-performance discounts, a performance space, a restaurant, free WiFi and restrooms.

Arrive early to get a good seat, as it’s first-come, first-served. For my part, I’m thinking about standing, just to remind me of my first experiences with Asphalt.

Asphalt Orchestra playing the world premiere performance of Stew and Heidi Rodewald's "Carlton."

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Posted in Contemporary, Contemporary Classical, Music, News, Pop and Rock, Punk

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Happy 63rd, Patti!

Posted on December 31, 2009 | 3 Comments

Patti Smith, sharper and more focused on her birthday. (Photos copyright 2009, Steven P. Marsh)

Patti Smith was still as giddy as a little girl last night, for the second of her three New Year’s shows at The Bowery Ballroom. She had reason to be happy — it was her 63rd birthday, or “burfday,” as she so charmingly says it.

But, unlike the first night, Patti brought a bit more snarl and a lot  more focus to the show. (She mentioned that The New York Times said she did some “bad things” on the first night. Check out that review, by Ben Ratliff, here.) The only slight disappointment last night was that the set list largely repeated the first night’s set. It was a spirited evening, though — good enough to make me regret my decision to skip tonight’s show to avoide the craziness of a Manhattan New Year’s Eve.

It didn't look like there were 63 candles on the cake that Jesse Smith brought onstage for her mom. But who's counting!

The evening had a few surprises. For me, the best came when James Mastro of Hoboken’s The Bongos, resplendent in a red hat, materialized onstage to assist on a cover of Neil Young’s Powderfinger. Last night’s version was much stronger than the opening night’s tepid effort, and Mastro’s professional attitude, great guitar work and solid vocals made a huge difference. (It would have been helpful if somebody had bothered to introduce James when he came onstage. While plenty of people in the audience recognized the local hero, his name wasn’t announced from stage until after he was done playing.)

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Posted in Concerts, Music, Pop and Rock, Punk

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Merry MexMas with El Vez and Los Straitjackets

Posted on December 23, 2009 | Leave a comment

El Vez rocks The Bowery Ballroom. (Photos copyright 2009, Steven P. Marsh)

The holidays have given Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? plenty of shows to check out, but little time to say much about them. So today is catch-up day on one of the season’s most enjoyable holiday shows:  El Vez, the Mexican Elvis, and masked surf rockers Los Straitjackets.

El Vez and Los Straitjackets filled the Bowery Ballroom with their special brand of Christmas spirit on Saturday night, Dec. 5.

El Vez is serious.

It put an awesome new spin on El Vez’s longstanding Merry MexMas holiday tour, as Los Straitjackets brought a slightly different musical sensibility to El Rey de Rock ‘n Roll’s show. El Vez normally tours with his own band, the Memphis Mariachis.

El Vez in Santa suit.

The new pairing freshened El Vez’s wonderful mash-ups of traditional holiday songs with punk and rock classics.

If you weren’t there, you missed a real treat. Be sure to plan early next year. Enjoy the photos.

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Posted in Movies, Pop and Rock, Punk

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Travels and travails of a punk princess

Posted on October 15, 2009 | Leave a comment
punk_princess_v4_web_7e9ff376

When Yasmine Lever wanted an original but authentic-sounding punk rock score to fuel her new musical-in-development, Punk Princess, she turned to her friends Stew and Heidi Rodewald, the creators of Broadway’s 2008 critical smash Passing Strange.

Smart move!

The result, revealed to the public for the first time yesterday in two readings at The Theatre at St. Clement’s as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival, was a lively show with memorable music, a winning cast and tons of promise.

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Controversial Toronto band wins Canadian music prize

Posted on September 22, 2009 | Leave a comment

Fucked Up

Fucked Up

Fucked Up, the Toronto hardcore punk sextet with the name that TicketWeb won’t print in full, was named winner of the 2009 Polaris Music Prize last night. The band snared the prize, which is given for the best Canadian album of the year, for The Chemistry of Common Life. In addition to its prestige, the Polaris Prize comes with a $20,000 award.

“We got frisked on our way in and I said ‘this is gonna suck’,” singer Damian Abraham was quoted in the National Post as saying after hearing that his band had won the prize, “but at least well get a free iPod. Well, we won the Polaris. Its a lot better than an iPod.

Fucked Up plays the Brooklyn Masonic Temple on Nov. 5, performing the album with the help of Andrew W.K. on keyboards and Vivian Girls on backup vocals. Tickets are $18 and available here.

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