Editor’s note: A huge shout out goes to the author of this, Pamela Zwaskis. She wrote up a great piece and took some amazing photos. So enjoy her take on what appears to be a great night of music.
It’s an eclectic Thursday night for revelers at the Bowery Ballroom. The match up of punky former Be Your Own Pet vocalist Jemina Pearl and reggae-tinged indie stalwarts Islands might be a strange one, but proves to make for a satisfying evening that gets everyone’s feet moving. In New York, that’s no mean feat.
Pearl, tiny and scrappy in pleather trousers and a Lou Reed button pinned to her jacket, comes to the stage as a newly-declared resident of New York, having relocated to Brooklyn from her native Tennessee after Be Your Own Pet’s 2008 breakup. The local color hasn’t had much of an impact on Pearl’s musical roots – her backing sound is still as sparse and skeletal (despite two guitarists backing her) punctuated by her loopy, bratty lyrics and tosses of her blond mop of hair. Pearl’s onstage persona is full-on hardboiled stoner despite her youth.
“Yeah, so, speaking about New Yorkers …” she drawls by way of introduction, before launching into her track “I Hate People” – a track she’s joined up with none other than Iggy Pop to record. The second song of the evening is a near-unrecognizable cover of Wings’ “Band on the Run,” but Pearl’s real turning point in her set doesn’t come until her band swap out their bare-bones approach for a heavier sound on Islands own tune “Heartbeats,” and Pearl takes her proper place in the line behind the Donnas for Joan Jett’s female rock crown.
With Pearl’s loose-throated vocals and ragtag energy, she deserves real oomph and power to match her presence, and when the volume goes to eleven, Pearl’s right behind it. Jemina Pearl may be as authentic as those leather pants she’s sporting, but she’s here to have a damn good time, and you might as well join in.
Montreal’s Islands take to the stage, emerging in proto-futuristic silver lame, headbands, and in the case of lead singer Nicholas Thorburn, a studded cape and wristlets. It’s near-comical, but adds the appropriate touch of stage flair and whimsy indicating this is anything but your typical pop.
Islands, the group that emerged from the seminal dark-pop Unicorns, have in the space of three albums, have come out from the Unicorns’ shadow, and have evolved from a – dare we say – tropical, earthy sound to swirling keyboards and loops lifted from 50’s sci-fi serials, lyrics tinged with references to changing technologies and culture.
Opening with “Switched On,” the band launches into an engaging, catchy set that spans all of their work to date. Central figure and lyricist Thorburn preens and poses like a spy film villain, complete with plastic eye mask, he certainly knows how to occupy a stage and
engage a crowd, and the New York crowd rapidly shifts from giggles to applause.
With Islands’ shifting, changing lineup, it’s a welcome return to the group for Jaime Thompson, a drummer who supplies stable skill and grounding to a group with its head in the clouds – Thompson is the only member who opts not to don the
silver lame. If not for the keyboard effects, Islands’ “Creeper” might be an Elton John B-side, while “Disarming the Car Bomb,” displays a more twangy, country-tinged flavor, complete with Old West saloon piano.
“I wrote this song four years ago to the day,” Thorburn offers, “So happy anniversary,” and the band launch into the weaving keyboard tones of “Tender Torture”. The track “Foreigner” is introduced as “about universal health care”. True final-night-of-the-tour to
tradition, Pearl’s guitarist even emerges to dance onstage during “Vapors’.Wearing funny costumes and wading into a more electric, 80’s-influenced sound is dangerous and much-maligned territory, but Islands seem more than comfortable reaching for the stars.
More photos of Islands, including the setlist, after the jump.
Islands
