On a Monday night you can bet on tacos in PJ’s after jolt starting your brain for the morning commute or maybe you’re crawling your way to your desk for all the freelance hustlers like us! But in Brooklyn, on a Monday night you might be able to see a 20 piece orchestra ensemble or a band profusely sweating on stage playing like it’s a Friday, and to boot an all female singer lead event spewing feminine power into the air like it ain’t a thang. Last night we covered Rvby My Dear’s “EP” release show at Knitting Factory along with Madam West, Eda Wolf, and the aforementioned posse (gaggle?) of musicians in The NYChillharmonic. Up first was Eda Wolf, and the threads connecting our scene, (or this working action oriented thesis of mine to unite and empower local artists I should say), came to life right before my eyes, as Eda Wolf was featured on our site as a Trax Of The Day that same day, (a part of our on going NYC Indie Playlist highlighting created by Mike McDearmon) without my knowing they were set to open this show! So just like that, from feature and collaboration with Mr.McDearmon to seeing and meeting said band live, I had an “aha” moment before readily falling into the sounds of Eda Wolf, spanning dub, electro, r&b, with the aria song bird vocal driving their stew of music, it was hard to fight feeling what they were putting down.
Second was Rvby My Dear (the artist formerly known as Ruby My Dear) taking the stage playing songs like “Dirt” off 2014’s Balloons and “Flourisher,” which also featured/premiered on ElevtrTrax earlier this year. I had nothing to draw upon seeing them for the first time, in fact i’ve been sitting on their records for a few months now absolutely loving the blend of ticker taper ambient sounds, with rhythmic vocal lines, and a perfect keyboard tone acting as a feathery glue on the hushed moments, but it was the jazz accents that surprised me, peaking out more in their set thanks in part to the rhythm section. If you can imagine beautiful meets dynamics, it’s right here.
The NYChillharmonic took the stage next after shuffling 20+ musicians on stage, bringing everyone a free entry to Lincoln Center at Knitting Factory. Really, seeing/hearing a band that massive is always going to have a larger than life feeling, I was pleased to see that KF could handle the brilliant verbosity, spacing out the horns from the strings, allowing the lone vocal to hit dead center, they are a must see experience for any fan of bands that might be harder to see down the road, when the stages and tickets are moving fast.
Lastly, Madam West took the stage soaking up the energy (yes on a Monday night) churning about in the room, they played some of my favorites like “Anxiety Palace” off of their last record Loves You, as well as their latest single “L” – joking it was an homage to the upcoming pending doom facing us when North Brooklyn loses its “beloved” L train in just a few years. Madam West are kicking off our event series at Lively tomorrow night @ 8pm and have been on a month long tour de force of shows, at this rate the level of their hustle is well deserving of a NYC band of the year nod, maybe someone at The Deli will catch my whisper of a dream. Shhhhh, female bands are their weight in gold in a scene fighting against the gentri at every corner.
Madam West + Mark U ElevtrTrax event series kick off at Lively Wednesday May 18th 8pm