Photos and words by Rez Avissar.
A night of no-bullshit indie rock at Bowery Ballroom, with all three bands filling the space with indie-rooted, rock n’ roll-indebted, experimentally adventurous, and most importantly, well-crafted songs.
[The Antlers]
I’ll admit that I don’t know a whole lot about any of the three bands tonight, especially The Antlers, (Ed. Note: Read our feature interview with Antlers’ frontman Peter Silberman here.) it was more of a “sounds good, let’s check it out” shows (this website doesn’t assign me these shows, I shoot the shows I wanna). They were surprisingly good, setting the tone for the night: tight, focused, folky rock songs with strong pop melodies. With the high falsetto vocals, it kind of reminded me of Woods.
[Cymbals Eat Guitars]
Cymbals Eat Guitars‘ debut record’s title is pretty dead-on (Why There Are Mountains). Their music is all about sweeping highs and lows, and judging from singer/guitarist Joseph D’Agostino’s performance last night, touring these songs out has not worn their effect at all. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone sweat so much in my life. It was literally flying off of him. The sweat-to-inspiration ratio was pretty darn good, too. Many will diss the band for D’Agostino’s college-band-dude look or his gauche banter, but the band put out a great record. And underneath that the band, like the last, seemed candid, sincere and genuinely appreciative.
Check out dude’s awesome effects pedals.
[White Rabbits]
Then White Rabbits came out and killed it. The three bands were a good trio to put together, but White Rabbits stood out as the right choice for headliner with their presence, which betrayed the confidence earned from extensive touring and years of playing together.
