30th October 2009

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CMJ Report: Day Five
Or “The Final Day”

I’d been planning all day to see Pissed Jeans, since they were performing at the Mercury Lounge in Manhattan, but they were scheduled to go on at midnight, and I had decided I would be better served by the couple extra hours of sleep I would get by going to an earlier show.  Luckily, I’d RSVP’d to the Neon Indian/Almighty Defenders show at Root Brooklyn, so I made my way there to see some cool shit.

This place turned out to be way more hip an establishment than any in which I ever really want to be.  I can definitely see myself feeling like I wouldn’t be comfortable hanging out with all these young rich people, but, luckily, today’s show was free, as were the drinks.  So, in came the riff-raff, like my unshaven, flannel-wearing self.  I’ve never had to wait outside a club while a bouncer looked for my name on a list, but once I got inside, I forgot about how lame that is, because there was free Magic Hat AND granola bars (or something).

We hung around for a while, checking out the INCREDIBLY loud DJ room for all of about one minute, and generally wasting time until the show started.  The DJ, by the way, was so loud that we missed the opening act almost completely, and didn’t even notice.  I hear Cale Parks was the opener?  I couldn’t tell you.

But I did catch all of Neon Indian, and it was great.  If you remember yesterday’s post, Neon Indian is VEGA, plus a lady!  They bring a lot of energy to their electronic-dance-space-pop stuff, and this time, the guitarist remembered to tune, so shit was very tight.  Highly recommended, and check out their new EP, Psychic Chasms, if you get the chance; it’s fantastic.

The Almighty Defenders closed out the night, and they were phenominal; I haven’t yet decided if they or Duchess Says were the best show I ended up seeing, but they were right up there.  For those unaware, The Almighty Defenders are Black Lips and King Khan & BBQ Show, in one super-cool, super-simple gospel-garage rock band.  Everyone switches off on lead vocals, instruments are passed around, and everyone has a good time.  It’s been a long time since I’ve heard songs as easy to sing along to; my sister had heard maybe a couple of their songs once or twice, and she seemed to be right with it.  Even cooler than that is the performance of King Khan; the man really knows how to work a song out.  I’d heard the record, and it turns out all my favorite songs are the ones on which he takes lead vocals.  The man’s a master.  If they’re coming by you, you need to see the Almighty Defenders.

So, all in all, a highly enjoyable experience.  If you missed any of the previous parts, they’re all here:

Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four

Anyone else have any CMJ experiences or recent concerts they wanna discuss?  Leave a comment, or submit your story here.

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