These are Powers, Growing and Fuckbuttons performed at Bowery Ballroom in New York a few days ago. Hearing about the show from a newly acquainted friend, I thought, “why not?” I had heard of all these bands, but never had the interest to research. I would rather just attend a show and see what comes of it. I feel you can never go to a bad performance in the art world. One should see each performance a gain or influence on your own piece of art.
these-are-powers-life-of-birds.mp3
I had known of These are Powers since I first moved to NYC but did not know much about them. They have a little buzz around the brooklyn music scene and I just noticed from their myspace that Windish Agency does their booking and their publicity is done by Biz 3 Publicity out of Chicago. Both companies are heavy hitters in the indie music world.
These are Powers’ performance was high energy and unique. Their sound seemed influenced by a lot of old traditions and new sounds coming out at the moment. At one time, the lead vocalist, in a way was spitting rhymes and/or spoken word lyrics over a Baltimore Club style beat. Other songs had heavy 4 x 4 beat patterns that seamed almost like hard house. I noticed that the kick drums and sub bass were hitting really hard but not overbearing. Overall the performance was a great! A friend of mine who came with us, said it was probably one of the best performances they had and all the other times they pushed the sound system to hard or had technical difficulties.
Growing was a band that I had never heard of before. Most of their releases have been signed to Social Registry, who also released artists like Gang Gang Dance, Psychic Ills and Jah Division. Rumor has it that they recently got picked up by Vice Records. Out of all the bands on the line up, Growing really stuck out. The three piece seemed very timid and uninteresting to some, but to me they were performers playing their music to a crowd of mixed music backgrounds. A more noise sound type of music to indie hip rockers, they seemed more in touch with an IDM crowd. Like These are Powers, their influenced seemed taken from Hard House or Gabber with experimental 4 to the floor drum kicks from pysch rock. Their performance over all took their show up and down. I am excited to see what is to come of them after their first release on Vice Records.
I had heard about Fuckbuttons about two years ago and people have said their live performance was incredible. Finally, I get a chance to check them out live at one of the best NYC venues. Coming from the UK, I was not very impressed. Maybe they caught me on a bad day, but their droning, repetitive, mid range sound was making me drowsy. I would say probably say the only best thing about their performance was their abrupt stop, which was a great ending after a non-stop set of hi pitch sequencers and head banging. I will probably see them again, but probably not pay to see them again.
The show was a great lineup for a monday night in NYC. It started at the right time and ended before midnight so everyone could get some decent sleep and go to work the next day. I would say watch out for These are Powers and Growing. Fuckbuttons will keep on doing what they do and gain new or loose fans.