Rural Alberta Advantage @Bowery Ballroom, October 7, 2009
Rural Alberta Advantage/Kittens Ablaze/Lovely Feathers
@Bowery Ballroom, October 7, 2009
It’s rare to have the crowd request an encore from the openers, but that’s exactly what happened Wednesday night at the packed Bowery Ballroom. The Lovely Feathers commenced the show with a passionate yet polished set of fairly straight-up indie rock-pop jams. The punctual foursome’s cry of “are you ready to dance?” may have only yielded some head bobs and knee wobbles, but when an audience member yelled “faster!” before the next track—which frontman Mark Kupfert says is normally a slow song—a That Thing You Do moment occurred and, soon, the crowd was shaking their groove thangs like only hipsters can do. All in all, The Lovely Feathers successfully accomplished the hard job of warming the crowd up, while maybe even winning over some new fans.
Sad you missed ‘em? The Lovely Feathers will be playing another early NYC show at this year’s CMJ Marathon—October 23, 7:45pm at the Fat Baby. “A baby that needs liposuction, that’s how I remember it,” quipped bassist Mark Shortt about how he retains in mind the club name. According to Shortt, “Last year we got haircuts [before the Marathon] and just happened to look good. This year…not so much. We’re trying to transcend the visual and just sound awesome.”
Following the Feathers was Kittens Ablaze—a fiery indie rock six-piece. Kittens Ablaze started off the set with the first song that they ever played together as a band, two years ago this week. The song featured drummer Tim Spellman who, rather untraditionally, is responsible for most of the band’s vocals. Not that a rock band with a cellist in dauntingly high heels can be said to be concerned with tradition.
Last, but in no way least, was Rural Alberta Advantage, who played their last NYC show of 2009. If you can believe it, the trio’s percussive elements are highlighted even more live than on their smash album, Hometowns. In addition to the strong beats, Nils Edenloff’s warbly croon wowed the audience throughout the mostly-originals set. A highlight was RAA’s cover of Abba’s “SOS” (of course, it’s only fitting that a band that was formed at an open mic night would nail a re-interpreted Abba song!) Should, for some odd reason, you not care for RAA’s music, it’s worth going to a concert just for the history lesson. At the show, for instance, we learned that petrified wood is the provincial stone of Alberta, which is why it makes its way into “Drain The Blood” and that the best thing to do if you ever find yourself in Edmonton is to go to the Legislative Grounds and look directly at the lights.
http://www.thelovelyfeathers.com/
–Emily Parliman
