Indie-licious

Brooklyn trio Meowskers played an upbeat, fun and happy keyboard-driven pop, and frontman Michael Rudnicki great vocals really carry the act.  Definite potential here once they get more experience under their respective belts.

As I mentioned, I was looking forward to seeing Irving at the Cake Shop, but instead got Figurines from Denmark, who I really didn't care much for when they were sandwiched between Cold War Kids and Tapes 'n Tapes at Bowery several months ago.  They were, however, better than I remember them being back then.  It was far from great, and I still wouldn't go out of my way to see them, but their live act is certainly improving, and hopefully will continue to get better with more experience.

That evening at Studio B was Insound's great lineup at the "Save The Album" party.  Kicking things off were one of my new favorite live acts to see in the city, Apes & Androids.  The venue, with its dark performance area, near-constant smoke machine activity, and colorful laser and light shows was the perfect setting for their futuristic act.  The vocal harmonies still steal the show, but the whole band together puts on one of the more entertaining shows you are likely to see.

Having just seen Thunderbirds Are Now! at the Brooklyn Vegan show the day before, I at least had a better idea of what to expect from them at Studio B.  They are right up there with some of the best performances at CMJ by a band I hadn't seen prior to the festival.  The energy level is through the roof from start to finish, and keyboardist and backing vocalist Scott Allen is a real lunatic, but in a good way.  Not content to simply slap his tambourine when not tickling the ivories, he'll instead to handstands, jumps, kicks, and just about any motion you could think of.  And I really enjoyed the few songs they played from their new album, which I'll definitely be sure to check out soon.

Now I feel like I'm in the minority here, but I just didn't get much at all out of French Kicks.  The girls seem to love them, but they were kind of putting me to sleep a bit.  Just seemed like a pretty half-assed performance which I didn't find particularly entertaining or memorable.

Out of seemingly 50 shows they were playing at CMJ this year, this was the first Tokyo Police Club set I was able to catch.  Admittedly, I had grown a little tired of them recently, having seen them a bunch of time over the summer and prior months, with essentially the same formulaic set each time.  Granted, that's understandable given they only have about 10 songs or so, but I was growing weary of the same stuff every time.  I'm happy to report they are really tightening up their live act.  A lot more energy and personality coming from the stage injected much-needed new life into the performance.

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about We Are Wolves.  I've heard several of the Montreal noise-rock trio's songs, and felt a bit take it or leave it about them.  But live was a totally different story.  The few troopers in the crowd that stuck around to the end were really treated to a hard rocking post-punk that seemingly required dancing along to.  Energy?  Oh yeah.  Real good time from these French Canadians.