The Black Lips played to a raucous crowd Monday March 9 at the Bowery Ballroom in New York. Needless to say, the band brought their Atlanta based psychedelic-punk rock A-game. The crowd ate it up while the Black Lips lived it up on stage.
VIDEO: The Black Lips – “Buried Alive” at Bowery Ballroom
VIDEO: Jared Swilley starts out standing on his hands in the first few rows of people
The Black Lips came on to a ready and eager crowd, thanks to the previous act, Gentleman Jesse and his Band. Jared Swiley stated that this was closer to “your father’s rock and roll than you think” and through all the noise, he’s right. The songs seem anchored in the past yet the Black Lips do not get mired by it. Their fusion of noise, punk, and psychedelic leanings morph the songs into a whole new animal.
A simple ballad like “Dirty Hands” sounds great. It’s endearing, with a lot of charm and humor. The Black Lips know they are rough, and they live it up.
“Oh, Katrina” is a rollercoaster of a song, with an urgency that is unmatched today. The crowd was living it up. Seeing Cole Alexander playing guitar and singing in a poncho along with Joe Bradley pounding on the drums, Ian St. Pe riffing on guitar and Jared on bass, it’s a flurry of activity and noise. A moment of clarity brings forward a nice guitar solo that soon descends into chaos.
Black_Lips-O_Katrina%21.mp3
Black Lips – O Katrina! [MP3]
In this seemingly dangerous blend of rock, the band is living in the moment. Every song has a sense of reckless abandon that success or failure cannot define. All the adjectives that have been used to describe the band are accurate. They are tribal, primal, guttural, garage rock, noisy, punk, insane, and visceral but they can’t be defined by those terms alone. There are times when they feel like a No Wave band, with the rhythmic sense of a band like Liars, with imagery of what looks like a lava lamp/microscopic cells being projected across them.
Before playing “Drugs”, the band jokes about how only two of them finished high school, but look where they are now making a living. As much as one expects the band to be all over the place, a song like “Short Fuse” is focused and dynamic, proving the band has more to give than what people might feel is a gimmick.
The band further plays tricks by playing a trio of songs with the implication that they are about men falling in love…with other men. It’s another curveball that keeps the crowd in the air as the band messes with any normal conventions.
The band distortedly howls, growls, and scream their way through their set, using a delay/reverb effect on the mic they close the set with the guttural “Buried Alive” a manic wave of energy draws the set to its conclusion.
As for the much vaunted antics, they were few and far between. Joe seemed like a man possessed on the drums providing unearthly growls, Cole had his pants down for a bit, Jared was hoisted above the crowd as eager fans held him up, and Ian at the end stage dived into the crowd. Maybe a little lesson learned from India? Even if that was the case, the now wiser Black Lips still put on a great live show.
Georgiana Starlington opened the night. A five-piece act, they played a combination of rock with influences of the south and church music. It is ramshackle, loose and noisy. The band’s live act was rough around the edges which initially added to their charm. While Georgiana was great to look at, her low key personality as well as her detached stage appearance created a disconnect that eventually made the songs wilt. The band started out at a good tempo, and the vibrancy and noise propelled the songs forward. It was hard to predict where this band was going, which is a good thing.
There were a lot of influences to be found in the wall of noise and Georgiana’s vocals. Unfortunately, there was at times too much that the band wanted to be put forth. The set provided a lot of variety but was too loaded in the beginning. The up-tempo songs became slower as the set went on, which ultimately felt a bit dragged on. A better understanding of pace could have made this set much more enjoyable. The last song they played included rotating vocals which was very good but lacked any buildup. Once again, a song with a good potential that needed more seasoning.
The next band on stage seemed too good to be true. They are tailored made to be exploded. Gentleman Jessie and his Men played a blend of rock that was very reminiscent of The Cars and The Jam. I constantly thought of the song “Jessie’s Girl” throughout the set, in a good way. The straight forward retro feel really made each song feel like you already knew it. There was no pretense and the band really had their sound honed in.The kids in the audience reacted to their set with several bouts of moshing. The crowd was enthusiastically behind this Atlanta based band.
The songs rolled off effortlessly with fun hooks and enough sex appeal to make it seem dangerous. A new song like “I Don’t Want to Know” sounds great with its energy and easy charms. It almost feels too calculated. The band hits all the right notes, riffs, and solos where a cynic may feel as if they are just a commercial package. Yet it is songs like “All I Need Tonight (Is You)”, with its surf mentality where they can show their range and “You Got Me Where You Want Me” that reinforce their sound. The band was animated and had a great chemistry. It was interesting to see how into the crowd was, and at times it was surreal that this relatively unknown band was causing such a ruckus.
