There was a lot more running around on day two, with smaller, tighter venues and younger bands. While not as good as day one, thanks to delays at Piano’s and visiting the worst CMJ venue so far, The Delancey, there was still a lot of good stuff seen & heard.
Club Midway, Bowery, Manhattan
Let’s Go Sailing, 3:00 PM
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L.A.’s Let’s Go Sailing played a sweet, uplifting melody with just enough fuzz and rock. Singer/guitarist/keyboardist Shana Levy is a subdued but effective presence, and the violin doesn’t stick out like a thumb (though little violinist/keyboardist Mandy Hoffman looks like she could be Levy’s tweener daughter). Part of ‘The Ship Collective’, they were talked up by Earlimart (QRO interview) and recent West Coast openers Oh No! Oh My! (QRO interview), they might not be as good as those fine, fine acts (or Levy’s last band, Irving), but the skies look as clear as their sound.
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Brooklyn Vegan Presents @ Piano’s, Bowery, Manhattan
Meat Puppets, 3:45 PM (more like 4:30 PM…)
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SST punk- and 90’s grunge-era icons The Meat Puppets were delayed, thanks to Death Set taking forever to pack up, but that just led to a packed house at Piano’s. Back with their first album in X years, Rise To Your Knees, the Kirkwood Brothers (singer/guitarist Curt and singer/bassist Cris) are a whole lot older, and their new material reflected that. While the drone-rock they opened with fairly bored, the roots-country did create some serious sparks (though they had to pick up the tempo first). Other pieces were smoother, and even classics like "Plateau" to "Lake of Fire" felt country-fied.
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WOXY.com/Gothamist.com @ White Rabbit, Bowery, Manhattan
The Forms, 6:00 PM
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Cincinnati’s WOXY (and woxy.com) teamed up with gothamist.com to deliver a series of acoustic radio sessions at White Rabbit on Houston. QRO favorites The Forms (QRO interview), playing their first show since last Friday’s with The National at Music Hall In Williamsburg (QRO photos), were a little thrown by playing acoustic ("acoustic math-rock" – ‘abacus rock’?…), "You can hear the note’s clearer" – "That’s what I’m afraid of!" (singer/guitarist Alex Tween). There were some tuning and level adjustments in this "trial by fire", but stripped-down, the emotion of the pieces off their self-titled latest (QRO review) really shown through. And their cover of Nirvana’s "All Apologies" approached the power of the MTV Unplugged version of the original.
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Brooklyn Vegan Presents @ Piano’s, Bowery, Manhattan
Bon Iver, 6:45 PM
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The Meat Puppets’ late start made it so that catching The Forms meant missing Celebration, who so impressed at McCarren Park Pool (QRO photos), but it also bumped Bon Iver out of conflict. Moved downstairs due to technical issues at Piano’s, Justin X & co. didn’t have all their equipment, but other than pointing out why their tuning breaks took so long, you wouldn’t have known. Playing in a much smaller venue than Bowery Ballroom than the night before, it actually suited Bon Iver – and not just ’cause it meant the place was packed. Closer to the audience, pieces like "Creature Fear" and "Skinny Love" rang truer, and the crowd was much more engaged during the sing-along to "Wolves, Pt. 2".
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Magnum Masquerades/Dim Mak @ The Delancey, Bowery, Manhattan
Foreign Born, 10:00 PM
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L.A.’s Foreign Born were less formal – and a whole lot sweatier – downstairs at The Delancey than on the series premiere of Chuck. Despite the cramped basement – crowd of show neophytes who never moved, no matter what was going on on-stage – or right next to them – Foreign Born rocked quite well. Nothing was finer than finisher "Union Hall", the lead-off track to their debut, On the Wing Now (QRO review), which had even the immobile crowd singing along.
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Oh No! Oh My!, 11:00 PM
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After listening to some insufferably loud house music between sets (the words to the ‘music’ were literally "loud music"), QRO favorites Oh No! Oh My! (QRO interview) climbed on stage. Most of their newest songs, like "Be A Star" and "Good Wood" veered more towards the bright 60’s pop than last EP, Between the Devil and the Sea (QRO review), though finisher "Wham, Bam, Thank You, Spaceman" was some pressing techno-rock. But none really felt as special as older pieces like "I Have No Sister" and "Walk In the Park".
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The Deadly Syndrome, 12:00 AM
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After The Delancey tried patience some more, L.A.’s Deadly Syndrome came on for some amped-up indie-rock, almost teenage in spirit. Visiting New York City for the first time, on the back of their debut XX, they were fun, exciting, and worth sticking around for.
Unfortunately missed:
iLIKETRAiNS (QRO album review) KEXP radio session at Gibson Showroom at 10:00 AM (slept through, after long night at Bowery Ballroom the night before)
Thurston Moore at the Apple Store at 2:00 PM (QRO live review from Maxwell’s)
Celebration at Piano’s
Flight Of The Conchords‘s Murray Hewitt at the New Zealand Music Showcase at The Delancey at 5:00 PM
