Friday November 6, 2008, Mercury Lounge: Holly Golightly, New York Times and Larkin Grimm

So I'm back, but the quality of my reviews is substantially lower (if that was possible). Mainly cause I'm spending less time on them. But really, the last few shows haven't been remarkable enough for me to write that much. Friday night was no different with one exception.

We arrived around 9:30 while the first opener was finishing his set. He closed with a Hank Williams song and used lots of guitar loops towards the end. It was alright. I don't know his name, and I honestly don't know how to look it up at this point.

Up next was Larkinn Grimm. She's on Young God Records, and in case you don't know, that's the label that Michael Gira (Swans, Angels of Light) founded and continues to run. Through his label, he brought us Devandra Banhart, Akron/Family. I'd argue that he's more responsible for the freak folk revival than Devandra Banhart (both because he descovered Devandra Banhart and because his Angels of Light project clearly bears a lot of similarities), but not everyone would agree. Anyway, given his track record, I try to give every artist on his label a chance.

Going in, I wasn't especially excited about Larkin Grimm. I had listened to some clips of her album, and while some of the material was promising, the music just wasn't anything that I would typically seek out. Not enough "rock" I guess. Live, she was very poised and confident, something not always found in "new" artists. Her singing was also substantially louder than it is on the album which I think helped give the songs the extra push they needed. The first couple of songs were played on the banjo and while they weren't bad, they weren't especially captivating either. The show seemed to pick up around the time she played "Dominican Rum", a song that she dedicated to Paris Hilton who she called a "svengali". The lyrics are kind of awkward and humorous, and she seemed to appreciate the audience's laughter.

For the 2nd half of the set, she was joined by a friend of hers she called "Snowflake" who accompanined her on acoustic guitar and some large stringed instrument that I've only seen in Kung Fu Hustle. For the final song, "Ride That Cyclone" she also had a female friend join her for backing vocals. It was a great ending to a set that just got better as it went on.

And then The New York Times played. I won't say much about them other than that they were unbearably boring and didn't fit the bill at all. Out of the four groups that night, they were the only full rock band, and their sound didn't fit at all. It was bland middle of the road indie rock. This seems to be a pattern at these Bowery Entertainment venues: they put bands together that have no business playing together. They've done this to Akron/Family twice, and it's really gotten old.

And then there was Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs. Or Holly Golightly and Lawyer Dave since those are the only two people in the "band". I'm not the biggest fan of this new project of hers. Holly Golightly needs a band behind her. While her country/blues forays aren't necessarily bad, they aren't that good either, and they really don't translate into a fun live show. There's just not much to dance to when the drummer is playing a kick drum set while playing guitar. She opened with "Crow Jane" which was pretty promising since it's one of her livelier songs, but for the most part, there wasn't much to move to in the set. The kind of long breaks between songs didn't help either.

So we left early. I guess there's more to say about the show, but I was too tired to really absorb much of it. And so I think that's all the reviewing I'll do for now.