Today’s Brooklyn has shown an amazing ability to take in all different sorts of music, from the drunkest party-garage to the most bedroom of laptop-pop chillwave, nastee gangsta rap to stripped, soul-bearing singer/songstresses – and all in between. That gets a little tougher when one goes to your old man’s Manhattan, but Wormburner made it work when they played Roseland Ballroom on Thursday, November 14th.
The Hoboken band was playing the massive (but soon to close) Roseland Ballroom (QRO venue review) as opener for eighties alt-veterans the Violent Femmes, who themselves were playing a semi-make-up date for their rain-shortened performance (QRO photos) this summer at Central Park SummerStage (QRO venue review). The crowd wasn’t exactly thick when Wormburner began with “Drinks At the Plaza Hotel”, as it was a school night – and the Femmes crowd was decidedly those with kids in school, and/or teaching kids in school. And while it might have been Roseland, it wasn’t a “Plaza Hotel” audience – or one for the motel on “The Interstate”, as the venue was filled mostly with post-Baby Boom post-hippies who followed Violent Femmes back in their “Blister In the Sun” eighties heyday.
Admittedly, the new “Drinks” was a bit of an odd open, dark and a departure from the group’s more workingman’s indie-rock style. However, it probably wouldn’t have fit anywhere else on the set list, and definitely shows growth for the band, as they look to follow-up their 2010 debut, Placed By Gideons. Following it was the actual Gideons follow-up, latest single “Today Might Be Our Day” (QRO review), which saw frontman Hank Henry evoke – and point, as he was often wont to do at Roseland. “Today” could have used more of a build-up to its epic push, and throughout the show Henry worked to get the band some momentum. Indeed, at one point he had to deal with some semi-, hopefully joking heckles for the Femmes to come on.
“Today” might have also been sweeter in the middle-to-late of the set because that of the performance had that momentum. New piece “Hopscotch Gunner” rocked all the way back to WWII, while “Pike City Proper” and especially “The Interstate” kept up their strength from Gideons. Storytelling songs can get a bad rap, asking the listener to follow along to everything the singer’s saying, and the stories are often untrue or at least embellished, but “The Interstate” is just the kind of song about the highway that you’re looking for from a New Jersey band.
“Today” b-side “Parliaments On Sundays” was next, but Wormburner had a special – and wise – choice to close. It was the first time that the band had played since the passing of late legend Lou Reed, so they ended their set with Velvet Underground cover “What Goes On” – not just a great song, and who doesn’t want a chance to cover the Velvet Underground, but doing “What” wasn’t doing “Pale Blue Eyes” or another expected one (that’s only acceptable if you’re R.E.M. on Dead Letter Office – or Metric bringing Lou Reed on stage in Manhattan – QRO live review), but still familiar enough to be known by the older crowd.
Seeing Wormburner live, and one is a bit struck that they all look older than you might expect, but perhaps that’s just because you’re used to either aged rockers holding onto their youth, or overgrown hipsters in their extended adolescence. Actual workingmen in the NYC music scene can feel as odd as Nick Offerman’s comedian who knows how to work with his hands. Wormburner aren’t the Ron Swanson of indie-rock (the only Ron Swanson of anything is Ron Swanson), but work in any borough.
