Last week, Peelander-Z played in Brooklyn again at the always fun Brooklyn Bowl (for those not from NY, it’s a bowling alley that doubles as a concert venue. You can bowl and watch the bands at the same time!). I hope by now you’re all familiar with this band, as I wrote about them the first time I ever saw them (which was ridiculous fun!), and when I saw them at SXSW last year. I brought my friend Krystalynne with me and it was the first time she’d seen them, or even heard of them, but I knew after the show she’d become a fan. I strongly urge everyone to see this band if they tour near you, because you don’t need to know any of their music to have a good time. Plus, they’re from Japan, so how can they not be fun? I also ended up playing bass onstage with them, again!
If you’ve been a casual reader of this blog, you’ve probably noticed that I enjoy going to shows to see my favorite bands live. In fact, my new years resolution for 2006 was to attend 100 shows, which I barely made by going to 101! So you can imagine that seeing such a high amount of shows can get somewhat monotonous; always surrounded by a crowd, looking up at the handful of people onstage, with nobody really paying attention to you. So I always enjoy something different, like when the band interacts with the crowd, or when people from the crowd get to interact with the band! I experienced the latter last night, mixed with one of my favorite things – karaoke!
Hopefully you are all familiar with the band Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. I actually booked them to play at my university in Boston in 2008, and I can confidently say that Ted Leo is a super nice, intelligent, and funny guy, and same with his band as well. Coinciding with the release of their latest album, The Brutalist Bricks, the Rx played a majority of the songs from the new record at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn last week, and after about an hour or so of new music they opened it up to karaoke!
Last week I saw the Japanese band Peelander-Z for the first time at a private party. I’ve had multiple opportunities to have seen them live before, but last week was the first time I actually did. Now I am KICKING myself for not having seen them every chance I’ve had. They were SO much fun. I didn’t know any of their music going into it, all I knew was that it was punk, which it was. But their songs are super fun as well, and easy to yell along to. Songs like Mad Tiger, S.T.E.A.K. and Karaoke Party have easy repeating choruses that they encourage you to chant along with. And if you aren’t sure what you’re supposed to be saying, they have signs to go along with some of their songs!
Over the past four days I have gone to five shows in a row! Keeping in mind that they would all be a good time, I made an effort to try and give you some visual aids to help you feel like you were there. Let me know if you dig ‘em, and if so I will continue to try and take some A/V samples for y’all. Let me tell you about the good music times!
First on Friday was Tim Fite. I first saw them at SXSW last year playing with Man Man on the recommendation from my friend. I was very impressed with his live show, both entertaining, and a little weird (at first), but very fun! Since March last year I’ve seen him 8 or 9 times, including booking him to play at my school. His shows are always a good time, and even though I know what to expect by now, it’s always fun to see how other people react. Along from watching him and “Sexy Leroy” onstage, he has some video shorts in between songs, and cloned backup singers that show on a projector that add to the visual stimuli. Plus the songs have a great musical range, from acoustic to hip hop to rock. Check out a video from when he played at my school in September (audio NSFW):
My favorite line from this song: “Even though we both sound exactly alike, is that Jadakiss or is that Tim Fite?!”
This is my space to write about my antics & adventures in New York, along with updates about my other interests such as photography, travel, karaoke, dodgeball, & more!
