7th April 2011

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Wire and Madensuyu @ Bowery Ballroom

Caught Wire playing the Bowery Ballroom last night supported by Belgium’s Madensuyu, and while of course Wire killed it, I have to say, they attracted a bizarre and … unfortunate audience. Lots of drunk Euro-Club-Fucks running/”dancing” around embarrassing everyone, yelling shit the entire time.

Anyway, Madensuyu sound like Interpol and … Wire, I guess. Lots of repetitions, robotic drum rhythms, guitar strumming, and some synthesized bass-lines too. They put on a solid set, but I will also say that the drummer had a few moments of sloppiness, and in general they were a little dull for my tastes. Though, having said that, the drummer also did some things that were really cool, so, I guess it evens out. Too much of a “dance music” influence though.

Wire. I have never heard better tone from any of the instruments than I heard last night. The effects on the guitars were perfectly sharp and metallic, and though I could have used a touch more bass in the mix, they fucking ripped regardless. Of course, much of their set was pulled from the new record, Red Barked Tree, and though it’s probably not fair to favor one of their fifty records over the rest, I would have liked to hear more from Pink Flag, but, this being Wire, it’s not really disappointing to hear a bunch of stuff from the rest of their amazing catalog. The guys played two encores, and, of course, bassist Graham Lewis was wearing his awesome black Donald Duck hat you saw him rockin’ on Wednesday’s Jimmy Fallon show.

I never really noticed this before, but Wire sounds a whole bunch like Mission of Burma to me right now. Anyone else feel that way?

Tagged: WireMadensuyuBowery BallroomEuro-goofs