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 | Polar Bear Club / The New Dresslive in New York2007 live show  Review by: Brian See others by this writer ![[staff]](/images/icons/staffsticker.gif){kind=icon}
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Published on August 10th 2007
More or less a Red Leader Records showcase, this Knitting Factory basement show was an excellent platter of the lesser known New York-area "punk" (more or less) acts.
Set list (8:42-9:11):
The New Dress definitely sounded not unlike that of Defiance, Ohio at many points, being a mildly folk-tinged duo comprised solely of a female vocalist and a male electric guitarist/vocalist. Not that they were bad or disgustingly derivative -- far be it. Considering the setup it was surprising they maintained my interest for all 28 minutes, playing straight up, sincere tunes about various political and personal matters, including the first song of their set, "Where Our Failures Are." The "band" had a few of their own fans there for them, singing along happily in unison. And finally, Polar Bear Club, who have apparently amassed a ridiculous following in the New York City area. At least two to three dozen were packed out in the cramped area and going apeshit to nearly every note, with people occasionally spilling over onto the front of the stage and quickly being assisted to back up on their feet. The band performed wonderfully, nailing every chord right on the head and hitting every beautiful dynamic of their powerful sound. Frontman Jimmy Stadt engaged the crowd every moment, standing on the edge of the stage to a rabid audience shouting along with every lyric as dudes up front dived onto the crowd with the ceiling six inches above their backs. The rest of the band were no slouches, either, energetically thumping on their weapon of choice. The 'other' new song they played was excellent, as one could imagine, while the band talked about how "Our Ballads" references a criticism that "girls wouldn't like [Polar Bear Club]." The disgust of the band's response to such a proposed scenario seems to be justified -- at this very show, the sporadic female could be seen right up front with the beards and beer guts. Set list (10:59-11:27):
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hahaha yeah! i do believe i was that sporadic girl up there singing/shouting along! it was pretty rough up there, im surprised you even saw me under the mass of manly elbows and occasional knees surfing up. what a show. PBC turned up the energy; it was great. I got a wee bit of footage while i was battlin' my way up there. if you are curious, you can view it here: Great show. PBC ripped, TND were awesome as usual, as was A!A! and NP. Jena Berlin were a welcome surprise, never heard them before. I was the dude taking pictures. Dude drinking the 40 was P Fresh. It was an 'Org-y! Yes, indeed, as Scott said, their set in Parma was off the fuckin hook. I've never seen a band get 20 people so energized and nuts (including me who, by some standards, is too old for that shit) before. I wish I would've know you were there, though, Scott (should've figured, actually), I would've introduced myself. I know you're a bigger dude, but were you either the guy drinking the 40 of Miller High Life, or the dude taking pictures? Just curious. "who have apparently amassed a ridiculous following in the New York City area. At least two to three dozen" Saw Polar Bear Club in Cleveland (well, Parma) on Saturday night -- holy shit were they incredible. I had somehow avoided hearing the band until their set, but wow, I was blown away. Can't wait till their LP. Hey Brian, thanks for coming out and writing the review. I hope everyone had a good time. Just wanted to add that even though a bunch of the bands were on red leader Jena Berlin have an awesome record coming out on JumpStart Records. As much as those guys rule (which is a lot), I don't want people us to take credit for them. So support them and JumpStart and pick up the cd. -matthew.red leader This show was great, and it was awesome to see bands as diverse as The New Dress' folk songs share the bill with Polar Bear Club's punk songs or Nakatomi Plaza's indie stuff. Punk rock definitely has been in dire need of people being able to enjoy just more then one type of band at a show (or at all). I thought The New Dress was the stand out band of the night though. I found out later that a number of kids came down from Syracuse (and some from Rochester even) and parts of upstate NY for this show, which explains why I didn't recognize half the people there. I also think it was the reasoning for the apeshit response they got. Wish I could've seen this! The Syracuse show was just as good, and featured the return of Fire When Ready. Seeing Nak Plaza again, and Jena Berlin for the first time would've been great, though. Excellent show, easily one of my top ones of the summer. Hot as shit though, but still wonderful. I believe the "new song" was "Another Night On The Rock" though I could be mistaken. PBC was definitely worth seeing. About 40-50 people displayed the energy of about 100 uproarious fans during Polar's set and I can't blame them. it was damn good. It would've been nice if they played "His Devotee" or played a song or two more from their demo EP (the set was short unfortunately). Still, PBC definitely sounded just like their recordings and that's a good thing. Yeah, my Warped review wasn't posted! Too much brutal punk rock for punknews to handle? This is not my review. Whose weiner do you have to suck to get your review posted around here? Well, I was already excited as all hell to see PBC tomorrow, but this review makes me want it even more. Hopefully they play "Devotee" though, that's probably my favorite off the EP. And for the record the criticism may unfortunately be right somehow because my girlfriend loves HWM and SBB but doesn't like these guys because she says the vocals "sound forced". ???? Fuckin women, I tell ya. Really PBC isn't really lke the typical bands people jump all over here and I can't see them changing their sound in a negative direction. I don't see why people would abandon them. So we're clear on this, I give it 6 months after the full length comes out until the commenters turn their backs on Polar Bear Club. |
