Five Thoughts About Art Brut/Surfer Blood/Midnight Masses @ Brooklyn Bowl, November 13, 2009
Five Thoughts About Art Brut/Surfer Blood/Midnight Masses @ Brooklyn Bowl, November 13, 2009
-So for those who haven’t been/don’t live in New York, the Brooklyn Bowl is an impressively thorough entertainment center, filled with beer, food, live music, bowling and even giant TVs for game watching. (Or, if you’re like me, watching Tim & Eric skits.) I ended up enjoying dinner (Frenchbread pizza, because I know you’re curious) while the Brooklyn-based Midnight Masses played. I’m not going to give a critical reading of a group that played out of my direct sight-line while I ate, but I will say that the group does a cover of Sonic Youth’s “Do You Believe In Rapture” that is shockingly soulful.
-Surfer Blood followed Masses (and dinner). Hailing from West Palm Beach, Florida, it was hard to tell if the group was having an off-night, or is simply too green to be on a national tour/the subject of massive internet hype. I’m sure they’re nice guys (Eddie Argos suffers no assholes) and they were catchy and everything, but whatever it is that pushes a song from “nice enough” to at least “solidly good,” (and whatever it is that turns an outfit from “oh hey, it’s an indie rock band” to “hell yeah it’s Surfer Blood!”) be it fluid instrumental interplay, rhythmic tension, charisma, energy or simple putting-your-back-into-it-hard-work, wasn’t there. I hope the group finds it, though. The world can always use more good bands. But sometimes I worry that by the time an over-heated band produces work that measures up to the hype, it’s already too late. But, again, maybe it was just a bad night.
-Art Brut are at the best stage for a young band. They’ve survived being over-hyped, and they’re survived the backlash. Now they can quit worrying about ridiculous things like buzz and status and focus on the important stuff: writing great songs and delivering great live shows. These are skills at which the group are rather adroit. Their third album Art Brut Vs Satan contains some of the group’s finest awkward anthems yet (“DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake” seems to have earned them a whole new audience of geeks) and even on a somewhat off-night (Argos claimed he was having a hangover; someone should have given him a banana smoothie) there’s few bands that work harder onstage.
-Though singer/ranter/genius lyricist Eddie Argos gets most of the attention, it’s worth noting how solid this band is. Drummer Mikey Breyer keeps things moving without fuss and lead guitarist Ian Catskilkin is a reliable source of riffs so catchy and loose that it doesn’t seem to matter that you’ve heard them all before. Bassist Freddy Feedback and guitarist Jasper Future provide crucial backing vocals that increase Brut’s hook factor by 500%, and during an onstage microphone repair, the two did an admirable job of keeping the energy level high during Argos’ brief stage absence. It’s amazing what two people clapping can accomplish.
-Of course, everyone wants to know what Eddie ranted about. Early in the set Argos revealed that, thanks to the titular song, he’s now good friends with “Emily Kane.” He then gave a shoutout to comic book writer Geoff Johns, author of Argos fav Booster Gold. Towards the end of the night, he capped things off with a long rant about the superiority of Christian Bale’s performance as Batman to Val Kilmer. Which, really, seems kind of self-evident.
http://www.myspace.com/midnightmassesandtheendofdays
-Michael Tedder
