Before acts foreign & domestic head to Austin for South-by-Southwest (QRO preview), they hit up New York City for the Lower East Side’s New Colossus Festival, Wednesday-Sunday, March 6th-10th.
Dedstrange showcase @ Berlin
Starcleaner Reunion
While the open bar situations turned into searches for drink tickets, Dedstrange did bring sandwiches from Perfect Picnic to Berlin for their New Colossus party. The small downstairs nightclub is more suited for drinks than music, but Starcleaner Reunion did their best in one tiny, awkward corner, fitting the five-piece in as they started the showcase, mixing between airy and more indie-pop/rock.
Showcase @ Bowery Electric
Yo Diablo
Two hombres from Valencia, Spain. It’s Yo Diablo, which is Spanish for “old wooden ship” used during the Civil War era. This band was a roaming, rhythmic pairing of guitar and drums. The six-stringer exercised some Dick Dale surf rock energy, with fingerpicking worthy of classical guitar stylings, and an instinct for the blues. The drummer kept the breakneck pace while his partner knob-fiddled with his pedals in the middle of songs to squeeze just a little more psychedelic raga flavor out of the electric juice boxes.
Echo Kid
The Philadelphia band Echo Kid got the phone call just the day before. A Swedish black metal band dropped off the bill – did Echo Kid want to road trip it to NYC to fill the empty slot? Sure, why the hell not? You only live once, and you can split the gas bill between all four band members. The net result was a hard detour away from metal, towards bright and bouncy indie rock. You could picture this band in a lineup with Drink Up Buttercup back in the day. One song had a distinctly Caribbean feel, but there was no steel drum in sight. Must have been some magic whipped up by the superb keyboardist.
Jelly Kelly
A five-piece post punk outfit from Brooklyn with danceable rhythms and a kind of washed out David Byrne delivery on lead vocals. It’s Jelly Kelly, which is fun to say and read and write and see and hear. Shades of pop serialism in the key of Horse Lords, but more free & easy, less programmatic. Apparently the band’s online identity was recently hacked. No worries, “NOW WE BACK!” Each song had a real lived-in feel, with lots of dotted ‘i’s and crossed ‘t’s squirreled away within the measures. And this band’s instruments were beat to absolute hell. You might have noticed that Sweden’s Melody Fields borrowed the bass for their set later in the night. Maybe that’s why the instruments are beat to hell. But axes are meant to be swung, not hung over the mantle, so it’s just as well.
Coral Moons
Coral Moons celebrated the release of their new single “Shrooms” just the day prior. They rolled it out in front of the crowd in the basement of Bowery Electric, along with more than a few tracks from the 2022 full-length Fieldcrest. With a song title like that you’d expect a more granola crew. But the musical aesthetic was more pop than jam. These are tightly-crafted numbers. The vocals of Carly Kraft are too enamored with exploring their own peaks, vistas, and pastures to let improvisation from the backing band lead the way.
Melody Fields
A psych jammer ensemble from Gothenburg, Sweden. Maybe this bill was originally meant to be a Swedish showcase, and every Swede fell off except Melody Fields. It’s hard enough to jump through all the political hoops to tour in America from abroad, never mind the financial and psychological burden of packing up all your shit and trusting the cargo hold of a commercial airliner. As mentioned above, their bass guitar didn’t make the trip, so they borrowed one from Jelly Kelly. There was no substitute to be found, though, for their missing keyboard player. Melody Fields set up the keyboard stand like the Chair of Elijah anyway, in case the wandering musician found their way through the door.
Ditto Music showcase @ Piano’s
Last Waltzon
While most other Lower East Side venues of yore have long since gone to Brooklyn or the Great Beyond, Piano’s (QRO venue review) remains, the classiest of the tiny spaces, with its own backroom venue and upstairs. Unfortunately, the lighting still leaves something to be desired, leaving Last Waltzon to deliver noisy rock that improved as they went on, under dull red lights.
min.a
But downstairs at Piano’s is Madison Square Garden compared to upstairs, which is just a regular room with acts playing on the floor on side under almost no light (thus the flash photos). It did fit for the solo artists min.a and OSKA, playing sad, intimate music.
OSKA
Love Language
Also upstairs was Love Language, who have been getting some notice for their post-punk art-rock. But kinda prefer The Love Language (QRO spotlight on)…
FRANKIIE
After the upstairs, the regular room at Piano’s felt grand. And thankfully FRANKIIE really lit the space up with their energetic, in-your-face pop-punk.
Showcase @ Rockwood Music Hall
The Band Cope
The four-piece band dashed off medium fast tempo indie pop bangers with four members. Or maybe five? It’s The Band Cope. The stage was so small in the front room of Rockwood Music Hall (QRO venue review) that musicians were just about falling into the crowd the whole set, and the house drumkit was positioned offstage against the wall. In fairness to the square footage of the platform, it would have been more than enough to accommodate the average quartet or quintet, except the space was dominated by a grand piano. It was a gorgeous old beast, but festival be damned, it wasn’t going to be budged an inch.
Papisa
The four-piece Papisa treated the room to some Brazilian rhythms. It’s a country that loves music, and makes sounds in a thousand different directions. But no matter the genre, there’s a special sort of tender loving care that shines off the faces of musicians from the Land of Parrots. The drummer had a smile that wouldn’t quit as he made beautiful mincemeat out of the beat-up house kit, making that sad sack sing. The set was mostly psych-rock originals, though there was one tune that the fronter announced as a “classic.” Unless it’s “The Girl From Ipanema” she’s going to have to be a little more specific. Whatever it was, it sparkled.
Radio Trapani
The guitarist and lead songwriter for Radio Trapani bought his guitar the same day of the show. Some checked baggage must have gone missing for the band from both Italy and the Netherlands. Every musician knows that a new instrument needs a little time to settle in. Played right off the shelf, a guitar’s strings will rebel. Go tight, go loose, go wherever except where you want them to be. Tuning shenanigans aside, the three-piece played light synthpop fare for waiting rooms. Extra points awarded, though, for coolly and confidently negotiating a drunk in the crowd, who wasn’t exactly a heckler, but wasn’t someone you want at the gig either. Bills that push past midnight can be exciting adventures, or they can be slogs filled with drunks who should’ve gone to bed hours ago. Be on the right side of history.
Keegan Powell
Canada’s Keegan Powell completed the international trifecta to finish the night. The outfit performed as a guitar-driven four-piece that was short on talk and long on jammy, rock n’ roll instrumentals. You could tell that the band had the last song earmarked weeks ago for closing out a festival set. It was an epic builder that pulled both the crowd and the band through the wringer. No encore needed.
-words & photos: Ted Chase & Michael Gutierrez
Check out Hump Day News‘ videos from Bowery Electric & Rockwood Music Hall:
