Live from Knitting Factory, New York City…it’s Wednesday Night!!!!

Ok we have 3 really great bands on the bill today that are as hot as this damn humidity we’ve been having for some time. Colossal will be opening up, followed by None More Black and last but definitely not least are the main attractions, The Lawrence Arms. So as pop artist Pink would say: “let’s get this party started.”

Colossal performed roughly close to 9 pm. If you don’t know who they are, get know them. Their sound can be described as indie rock mixed in with jazz and post-rock influences, a deadly combination I say! It was definitely a treat for me since I’ve been dying to see this band live. Their EP “Brave The Elements” blew me away and so did their performance. They started out with the song Table Setting off the newest Asian man comp. It was very sweet and Pat Ford’s voice couldn’t be any better. His voice was very moody, dark yet sincere. After the song they played one of my fav songs from their EP, Human Jackson. Jason Flaks was great on the trumpet at the middle of the song. Probably the highlight of this set and possibly the night was when they were playing Embers Only. The audience was treated with a roughly 2 minute drum duet with Rob Kellenberger and Tennessee Hennessey of the Larry Arms. I was very impressed and left a smile on my face. Colossal also performed 2 new songs that were great. Hopefully, it’ll be on their full length sometime in the future. A great band to start off what was becoming a great evening.

Next up to the plate was None More Black. They started off with Everyday Balloons off their Fat debut. The whole band was very much into the music especially Jason and Paul. At times, Paul would just spit up into the air high and I would watch it hit the floor. I wish every performer would do that at least once in their set. They played other songs off the debut like Drop The Pop, Ice Cream With The Enemy, M.A.T.T.H.. Finally the band ended with Dinner’s For Suckers. I don’t understand why the record seems to lag in a few songs yet they sounded dynamite in person. For anybody that was skeptical about NMB, you should check them out live. Their presence and energy is 100 times better than what is in your CD player.

Finally, The Lawrence Arms get ready to pick off where the other 2 bands left off. It probably happened around 10:30 or so…don’t remember exactly. I’m going to explain the songs they played in this paragraph since I didn’t get a set list and I got fucked up after the show. Please don’t get riled up if I’m missing a few things. And speaking of fucked up, let me just state that Brendan was fucked up. I mean FUCKED UP. I thought he was pulling our leg but man did he slur. He introduced the band and got into the first song that was off the new Fat Wreck comp. I believe it’s called Presenting The Dance Machine or something. It was a rocking minute and some seconds. Then came other songs like The First Eviction Notice, Sixteen Hours, Porno and Snuff Films, 100 Resolutions. Let me pause the song list for a moment and describe Bren’s crazy talk. I mean at point he would have a band meeting then discuss it with the audience all out-of-proportion. At least that was what Chris said. Brendan would say stuff like “Ca-nay-da” instead of Canada and I think he said “Interpol” instead of “internet.” Again, you got to love drink people perform. Anyway back to the songs: Turnstyles, Chicago is Burning, Right As Rain Pt.2, Detention, Boatless Booze Cruise, and Quincentuple Your Money. They also played a couple of new songs off their soon-to-be released album but the only one I could remember is The March Of The Elephants (again help me out) and it was a pretty good song. Their performance was stellar and funny as Brendan would be all over the place. He was talking all kind of nonsense and the crowd ate it up. One guy said “Slapstick Sucks” and all Bren said was “at least that chapter of my life is closed.” Hilarity ensues. Also there was a point where some kid said to play a Simpsons episode with commercials. So Brendan did; all 1 second of it…ha.

Overall, a great show with every band performing absolutely flawless especially Colossal. As for crowd participation goes…well…um…they liked but not as much of a commotion as one would think. However, it was still solid. Check all these bands out when they come by your 'hood. After that see them again in the future.