CMJ Live at Bowery Ballroom featuring Local Natives a set on flickr
“San Cisco arguably the catchiest and funnest band of the night at CMJ’s Bowery Ballroom festival. After rushing into NYC to catch Local Natives off a plane from Boston off then from working a CMJ event at jetBlue Airways: to NYC! I didn’t expect anything, these guys really impressed me and I highly recommend you see them live, they are a LIVE band by nature, hailing all the way from Australia, they stood out amongst these predominantly Cali bands.
They have a female drummer, but she’s as good as the drummer from Neon Tree’s, who in my mind has previoulsy erased the memory of Meg White from the Indie circle of the quentesential fem-stero types. SC’s drummer not only plays dynamics, great patterns and decicion making with her placment, but sings, sometimes, EVEN lead! This band sounds a bit similar to Local Natives, the only band that had a small fraction of LN influence in their guitar playing, so because it wasn’t done in the night, it was endearing to hear. Also lead vocalist channels Vampire Weekend, they made me feel like I was at the prom I never went to. They’re a fun loving act with subtle Beach Boy’s feel good vibes and get quirky at times and the commentary with an Australian accent is always fun to hear.”
Notable: They love tempo changes, and the audience loved every second of the give and take pull with all their fun upbeat songs. They ended their set with a song, “about stalking, called Awkward”.
Awkward Music Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukNOaKeUEQY