Opening the night was The Subway Band. When contemplating how I should describe them to you, I was thinking about this analogy: picture Regine from Arcade Fire (accordian et al) fronting a Spanish cabaret act that performs nearly all covers of your favorite songs of all time. Yes, that's a fairly good description, I think. The Subway Band was absolutely amazing - not only did they open their set with a rousing cover of 'Tainted Love' but they also managed to deliver their unique take on Lauryn Hill's 'Ex-Factor' and Yeah Yeah Yeahs' 'Maps' (which put Ted Leo's version to shame!). I HIGHLY suggest you pay their MySpace page a visit. This band is incredible. Their next gig is April 12th @ Pianos. Take our word for it, you'll be smiling ear to ear within 5 minutes.
The second act of the evening was the lovely and talented, Bell. Bell's set included a cover as well - of The Go-Gos massive hit of our youth, 'Vacation' as performed with a keyboard, exclusively. The tune was an otherwise mellow number in a 45-minute set of electro indie-pop bounciness/friskiness. Perhaps my favorite track of the night was the all-encompassing 'Expanding File' which featured all of her backing band playing their little hearts out, as well as Bell herself, fiddling back and forth between her iMac and keyboard. You can check out that tune as well as a few others, on Bell's MySpace page. Or, you can grab a handful of Bell's MP3s over at Soft Communication. Bell will be performing at Rockwood Music Hall on March 14th and 21st.
Ahh, The Lisps. If the last time I saw them at Pianos, I was blown away, then this time I was lifted into a hurricane and transported to Lispsville. It's rather interesting, how the more I get to love a band, the less I have to say about them. I guess my current state with The Lisps is total admiration. The Lisps were absolutely AMAZING. Their anti-folk tunes could not have translated any better than last night (at one point, the crowd was waltzing!). The band was having a merry little time on stage, surely a product of constant cheers and sing-alongs the crowd was giving back.The Lisps will be touring select cities around the country over the next two months (all dates here). Do yourself a favor and check out one of my favorite local acts, The Lisps.
The last act of the evening was Scary Mansion. While the group usually has, err, multiple members, last night it was just frontwoman Leah and her thunderstick. Incidentally, the thunderstick is my new favorite instrument. For those unfamiliar with it, as I was, picture a children's guitar, now shrink that to half its size, cut off the guitar's curves and replace it with pointy edges. If that doesn't help, then go check out Scary Mansion at their next gig, March 7th to witness some thunderstick magic. Info for that show on their site, here! Scary Mansion's set was sweet but perhaps hard to judge since it was on the short side and featured just 1/3 of the full band. Still, a very pretty way to end the show. It felt almost as if Leah was serenading us home and who doesn't love to be serenaded?Oh yes, and my playlist over the course of the night:
The Knife - Heartbeats/Peter Bjorn & John - Young Folks/Kaiser Chiefs - Oh My God/Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger/We Are Scientists - Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt/The Coral - Dreaming Of You/Beck - Hell Yes/CSS - Let's Make Love & Listen To Death From Above/Goldfrapp - Strict Machine/Prince - Kiss/Franz Ferdinand - Michael/The Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)//Madonna - Get Into The Groove/The Sounds - Dance With Me/The Stills - Still In Love Song (remix)/The Rapture - Olio/Britney Spears - Toxic//The Cure - Boys Don't Cry/Sons & Daughters - Dance Me In/Bloc Party - The Prayer/Cornershop - Brimful Of Asha/The Arcade Fire - Keep The Car Running/Editors - Blood/The Strokes - Someday/Basement Jaxx - Where's Your Head At?
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