Quiet Color

by chris carpenter & neil roberts

CC: I beefed up my hipster resume last night as I added “go to a Celebration/Fashion show at Glasslands under the influence of a class D substance.”  The event was the culmination of Williamsburg Fashion Weekend, with fashion shows by King Gurvy, SDN, Sodafine, and Treehouse dominating the first half of this long evening of entertainment.  I’m incredibly uninformed and out of the loop with the fashion world, but I still found the garments inventive and interesting.  Thankfully, some of the models had colorful personalities, which enhanced the experience.  The last set of designers stole the show in terms of presentation. One by one, individual musicians and models clothed in show garments, graced the stage and jammed during their own one minute solo. In the end, there were 10 percussionists, a bassist, and a swinging trapeze artist bobbing to the now 14-minute jam. The performance got the crowd’s blood flowing and jazzed the shit out of us.  Props to Treehouse Brooklyn’s house designer Sirius and Sodafine’s Erin Weckerle for the original concept.

Artist: Celebration Song: Pressure

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The next thing to hit the stage was the electric folk rock band The Tall Firs.  This didn’t really seem to be their crowd.  I overheard myself say, “It’s kind of like Explosions In The Sky exploded.”

NR: Tall Firs tried… but didn’t want to be there, and certainly didn’t put on a show worth watching. They were boring, and didn’t do anything that hasn’t been done. Then, the tides turned as I saw Tunde from TV on the Radio, plugging in a delay pedal to a vocal mic. Oooh!  This is getting much better… Next thing I knew the bearded drummer who seems to play with everyone (Ryan Sawyer) started slapping some crazy avante guarde soundscapage to perfectly compliment the trippy vocal manipulations Tunde was laying down. I was more than down with it, and thus I got back up. I started to get really excited for Celebration, the fashion bitches started to leave, and it all seemed to be coming together.

CC: I was sad to see the fashion bitches ladies go, as they were beautiful.  But my award for prettiest girl of the night stuck around; her name was Rachel.  Congrats Rachel! Your award is waiting for you at the Levee on North 3rd and Berry. Celebration’s setup felt longer than college, but not quite as long as a Kanye West Bonnaroo disaster.  Katrina and the crew finally hit the stage and immediately had the support of the Glasslands faithful.  She looked at us directly in the eyes and sang her heart out, while her band did their thing.  But they had problems with the sound coming out of the monitors, and kept stopping, which felt like your roommate kept busting into your room while you were trying to have babymaking time with your maker of choice.  Although occasionally blue balled, the percussion saved the performance for me.  Even Ryan Sawyer, who seemed to have a place in everybody’s entourage this evening, came on to drum.  Their set ended with an uplifting finale where an all-inclusive vibe opened itself up to us.  Katrina even passed out noisemakers to buddyband Bunny Rabbit and the Cult of Miracles.  There’s no denying that she can sing, and they can play their instruments admirably, but there was something off about this performance that never quite got back on.  The glimpses of rocking out proved to be sufficed, and I’m pumped to see a show of theirs with more music-induced continuity.

NR: I love this band, Modern Tribe gets played in it’s entirety at least 9-15 times a month, it’s another Sitek masterpiece . But I went to a rock show last night, expecting to lose my shit, let it all go, and dance out my pent up quarter life crisis’s.  So I feel I can be disappointed, without being  a hater. The show lacked the deeper connection I was hoping for. There was a self consciousness in their performance, and I don’t think the band ever really found each other on the higher plane I expected them to. Katrina ran off the stage way too fast after the encore for everything to have gone alright. I could tell they weren’t satisfied, and I wasn’t either. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed myself. I did. I danced a lot, watched in awe, as multi instrumentalist Sean Antanaitis played bass lines with his feet while looping guitars, all while whirlin the Whirly. I studied up on, how two drummers can lay down a rhythmic foundation that can make an entire song breathe, and give the rest of the band a river to float down. And of course, I will always watch Katrina sing anything..ever, she’s got it, and I want it.  Needless to say I’ll always see them whenever they play and I didn’t loose any faith in them.

CC: On behalf of Neil Roberts

NR: And Chris Carpenter

BOTH: Goodday Brooklyn.