Nadeem Salaam Fake Guns, The Midnight Hollow & The Undercover Dream Lovers | Live From Berlin
Monday night featured the debut of the new outfit lead by Alex Fitts and Chris Wall of old school NYC band The Kickdrums. The Brooklyn-based outfit called Fake Guns, of course was joined by the ever psychedelic and evolving Midnight Hollow, and newcomers The Undercover Dream Lovers. While the drinks poured in Berlin’s redlight,
The Undercover Dream Lovers kicked the evening off soon with chimey sounds that elicited many of Brooklyn’s indie synth staples, except for their deep groove-laden beats, that were done with grace, charm, and creativity. They continued to play rhythmic heavy indie pop, seamlessly setting up the evening for The Midnight Hollow who came on next, adding a more confrontational approach through their entrancing energy.
We’ve had the pleasure of following The Midnight Hollow around for a bit, last night was one of their best performances I’ve seen, not bad for a cold Monday night. The band is wrapping up all new material at the moment, their last EP still manages to ring in new fans despite being out for a bit. Seeing them play this material live really makes you wonder if they’d just released the material, (*spoiler: it’s been over two years) their psychedelic sound also meets a classic rock rawness, thanks in part to the rhythm section of Andrew Segreti on drums and Mathew Michael Leibowitz on bass–they really push the momentum forward with scary accuracy, while Spencer Draeger does overtime on vocals, keys, and guitar, managing to notch off a list of consistent warm tone in all that energy with the occasional dance moves.
Fake Guns followed up making their debut go beyond esthetic confines they have built a career on without erasing where they’ve come from with The Kick Drums. Debut singles like “Yellow” in all its anthemic quality started the night off with the energy punk brings. As a three piece, they hold their own, often the lone distorted guitar left room for Alex’s vocals to punch through, as Chris Wall laid down his style of heavy handedness on the drums, at some point the audience was dancing to their power pieces, little room for error with high energy when its done by two guys that have been at it in New York’s music scene for the better half of a decade. As they plan and roll out more material in the coming year, we’ll get more chances to see and experience more of their raw sound filled with guitar ear-worms.