Live From London @ Bowery 3/14: Jamie Woon, The Pipettes & Amy Winehouse

Who knew that getting in to see a drunk British girl sing would be so hard?

It’s 7pm on the Lower East Side and a line is forming outside of The Bowery Ballroom. I find it hard to believe that it is already the line to get in, and I contemplate joining them for 5 minutes as I sit in my car staring but instead, head over to Mercury Lounge to catch the 8pm set by Winterkids. Mercury Lounge is also hosting the Live From London affair that evening, an event:

“produced by British Underground with the support of Creative London, part of the Mayor’s London Development Agency, and British government organization UK Trade & Investment. It has the support of London’s NME music paper, Time Out New York and Visit Britain alongside UK music trade bodies AIM, MMF, PPL and PRS.”

Whew. That’s a lot of bullshit. With buzz bands taking turns coming from either New York or the UK, you wouldn’t really think the country’s music industry would need the pr. On second thought…wait, I don’t know. But it doesn’t really matter either way. What does matter is that they shelled out the dough for some fantastic bands to come play New York last night that we might not have gotten to see, or at least not all at once. I only wish this mini-orgasm of Brit pop would have been spread out over two days. I wanted to see The Holloways.


You’ve already read all about the Winterkids’ show from Matt, so let’s fast forward. Imagine me speed walking down Allen Street, then west on Delancey, avoiding a bum in the middle of the sidewalk and running up to a friend waiting in line outside the venue. Our conversation went a little like this:
“Do you think I’ll start a riot if I get in line with you guys?”
“Uh, yeah” says friend a little incrediously. “I’ve been waiting since 7:40.”
“What?! Are you kidding? Well, I guess I’ll go to the back of the line…”
“Do you not have a ticket?”
“Wait, what? Oh yeah I have a ticket.”
“Well then go on in, we are waiting to buy extras.”
“Damn, well see ya.”

Once inside, I found myself in a half empty room as first act Jamie Woon serenaded the crowd. He performed a few originals, a few covers and won me over with his sweet demeanor and lovely, soft voice; just a lone boy strumming a guitar onstage with a blue spot-light on him.



With a relatively short set change over, The Pipettes hit the stage. Ever since I downloaded ‘Dirty Mind’ from Fluxblog in October of 2005, I’ve been on the Pipettes’ band wagon. Seeing them last night was the culmination of a year and half’s worth of adoration. I am always attracted to those artists whom juxstopose the beautiful and sinister. The Pipettes do just that with light 60’s girl group inspired music and ever so raunchy subjects that mostly revolve around sex.

“lets stop with all the talking, why not try something new? Because there's no need for any talking in what we're about to do”- ‘Sex’

The three girls might not have any rhythm, but their cute attempts at dancing, adorable costumes and, let’s face it, attractiveness factor coupled with an album full of fun, catchy songs makes for a great live show.

Not knowing much about Amy Winehouse, I never the less found myself willing to sell my soul for a ticket to see her. The countless pleading emails I clogged the music world’s inboxes with were well worth it. Amy Winehouse put on one of the best shows I have seen all year. It was soulful, it was beautiful and damn was it entertaining. My feet were hurting in my heels but I still danced my heart out to every track.

With a full band of ten very fine looking gentlemen, Amy Winehouse took the stage in a short black dress with white polka-dots and a matted looking bouffant hair-do. As she sipped at her Jack and lemonade, she ran through songs from her first and second albums, Frank and Back to Black, and received the greatest reception with the title track off of her latest effort and the notorious ‘Rehab.’

Like The Pipettes, Winehouse brings together the beautiful with the dirty. She infuses 60’s Aretha Franklin style soul with lyrics declaring she won’t go to rehab and “What kind of fuckery is this?” Every song in her repertoire is a hit and I for one am glad to see the resurgence of jazz into popular music, especially when it is done by a songstress such as Winehouse. Before Amy does really have to go to rehab, I suggest attempting to catch her.

Musicsnobbery and BrooklynVegan were dancing on my left, Greg Misshapes was grooving on my right and I was smack in the middle tearing it up all by my lonesome.

MP3: 'Back to Black'- Amy Winehouse