Noise Pop 2009: Les Savy Fav Played Mezzanine - Pictures, Review

"This is a rock and roll situation" - Tim Harrington uttered these words last night during Noise Pop's closing party with Les Savy Fav, and we couldn't agree more. While we had been warned that LSF's live set was "intense", "unbelieveable", and "off the hook", nothing really could have prepared us for the insanity that descended from the stage at Mezzanine last night.

Harrington is simply intent on destroying any perceived notions of safety or rock and roll standards: he was willing to go anywhere, do anything, and let (it seemed) anyone on stage. The band's lead singer started out the night wrapped in toilet paper and claiming it was a cast, and over the course of the night would find himself draped in a curtain, in a striped sailor's shirt, tied to a fan with duct tape, and wearing no shirt at all.

Harrington's antics, however, weren't limited to clothing: there were certainly actions as well: he descended into the crowd multiple times, without any intent on having a cordless mic. He did an airplane from the balcony and then slid down the stairs on a pair of ottomans. He shoved a half eaten banana in the mouth of a photographer, and kissed the lens of another. He drenched three fans on stage with a garbage pail of beer, and made a call on the phone of another. It simply never let up.

For the fans' part, the crowd was loving every minute of it, and embraced Harrington's disregard of convention as their own. Numerous fans climbed on stage and made themselves a part of the stage show. The photo barrier was all but irrelevant and was dissolved about halfway through the show as the throng of fans surged forward to be closer to the band. That being said, the reaction was not all crazed mania: there was definitely fans of the band who were there for the music, and not just getting sucked into the craziness.

So, how was the music? To be frank, sometimes it was difficult to separate from the on stage antics, but the fact of the matter is that it was very, very good. Harrington's vocals were significantly more garbled and spoken-word then they are on the records, but the rest of the band managed their duties with precise expertise, which was surprising given all that was going on around them. The band's music is pretty straight-ahead rock and roll, so given a solid foundation, it shouldn't be too hard to recreate in a live setting. Still, we were impressed that given the nature of the show they were able to deliver such a tight, precise.

We attended the show with a friend who had seen the band three times before, and has every intent of seeing them again and again and again. Frankly, we can see why: Les Savy Fav delivers a show that is simultaneously memorable, unique, musically accessible, and full of such extreme vitality that it's impossible not to love. What's more, in the context of a week that was laced with so much fantastic music, there needed to be a finale that completely evaded any kind of comparison, and Les Savy Fav achieved that without a doubt.

Many more pictures at the HAD Archive.

Noise Pop 2009: Deerhunter Played Mezzanine - Review, Pictures

Last night at Mezzanine, Noise Pop got going not with a bang (or even a pop, for that matter), but with a massive influx of glorious unrepentant noise expertly delivered by Deerhunter. The band played to a packed room of fans and brought forth a set that perfectly toed the line between their more noisy and more melodic compositions. What's more, the band seemed to completely transcend any of their sometimes-notorious stage drama and not only deliver a full set, but enjoy themselves at the same time.

Like we said, the set was diverse, and pulled from the band's entire catalog. The opening "Cryptograms" really served to get the night off to a great start, and the one-two punch of "Cover Me Slowly" and "Agoraphobia" was significantly meatier than on the record. While the extended version of "Calvary Scars" was a noise-rock masterpiece, our favorite spot of the evening was a fantastically perfect version of "Microcastle". When it kicked into the breakdown half way through, it simply blew the top off the room.

One of the most incredible thing about seeing Deerhunter live is their ability to recreate the layered sounds that define their records. Despite what we would have guessed to the contrary, there was nary a synthesizer in sight last night. Rather, the band uses guitars, vocals, and an array of pedals to generate the many tiers of audio. Most interesting to us was the number of synth-like tracks on the record that are actually processed vocals by lead singer Bradford Cox. Seeing the band craft these textures in a live environment is simply a wonder to behold.

If it's not clear from what you've already read, then let us be clear: we simply couldn't have asked for a better show than what we saw last night. Deerhunter demonstrated without a doubt that they are one of the most relevant and groundbreaking bands today. What's more, they have mastered a remarkably poignant ability to combine accessible, danceable melody with utterly challenging sound and noise. If music were a contest (and mind you, kids, we're not saying it is), these guys are most certainly the band to beat.

Deerhunter plays another free show tonight at Rickshaw Stop.
Setlist here
Many more photos at the HAD Archive

Noise Pop 2009: Noise Pop Starts Tonight!

Well, here it is: tonight San Francisco's own Noise Pop festival gets rolling, and with it some of the most anticipated shows of the year. You can check out HAD's guide to the fest right here, but in case you're just scoping out tonight's activities, here's what's in store:

Antony and The Johnsons @ Nob Hill Masonic Center
John Darnielle (The Mountain Goats) @ Herbst Theater
Deerhunter @ Mezzanine (Free!)

Remember kids: stay safe, and have fun. See you out there!

NASA Readies For Takeoff, New Album, Show At Mezzanine

We have to admit that albums in the "producers round up their favorite artists and release a record that features one artist on each track" category tend to be ones that we avoid. That being said, what we're hearing out of the N.A.S.A. camp is really too good to ignore. The duo consists of DJ's Squeak E. Clean and DJ Zegon, and is apparently their attempt at unifying important artists from North and South America (hence the acronym, N.A.S.A.).

Their new record, The Spirit Of Apollo, drops next week and features an artist lineup that boggles the mind. It includes David Byrne, Karen O, Seu Jorge, MIA, Santogold, Ol' Dirty Bastard, RZA, Del The Funky Homosapien among many, many others. It's a veritable indie/hiphop dance record dream list and the first track we've heard ("Whachadoin?", below) is totally fantastic. What's more, the band will be touring in support of the record and dropping in at Mezzanine on Februrary 28th. Tickets are on-sale now.

N.A.S.A. Spring 2009 Tour
Feb 11 2009 Social Club Paris, Ile-de-France
Feb 12 2009 Old Room @ Melkweg Amsterdam, Noord-Holland
Feb 13 2009 Les Generiques Festival @ La Vapeur Dijon, Bourgogne
Feb 14 2009 Petrol Antwerp, Antwerp
Feb 26 2009 Casbah San Diego, California
Feb 28 2009 Mezzanine San Francisco, California
Mar 2 2009 Holocene Portland, Oregon
Mar 3 2009 Nectar Lounge Seattle, Washington
Mar 6 2009 Triple Rock Social Club Minneapolis, Minnesota
Mar 7 2009 The Abbey Pub Chicago, Illinois
Mar 9 2009 El Mocambo Toronto, Ontario
Mar 10 2009 La Sala Rossa Montreal, Quebec
Mar 11 2009 Harper’s Ferry Boston, Massachusetts
Mar 12 2009 Le Poisson Rouge New York, New York
Mar 13 2009 Barbary Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Mar 14 2009 Rock & Roll Hotel NE, Washington DC
Apr 17 2009 Coachella Indio, California

mp3: NASA - Whachadoin? (feat. Spank Rock, M.I.A., Santo Gold, & Nick Zinner)

Free Noise Pop Deerhunter Show Confirmed, RSVP Now

That Deerhunter show we mentioned last week? It's been confirmed, and tickets are free. Head here to RSVP now!

Deerhunter Playing Free Show @ Mezzanine For Noise Pop's Opening Night

We don't have many details for you beyond what's in the headline, but we have it on good authority that Deerhunter will be playing a free show at Mezzanine for Noise Pop's opening night. Details forthcoming...XOXO

Reminder: Vampire Weekend Is At Mezzanine Tonight (Plus New Video)

Tonight marks the beginning of Live 105's Not So Silent Night festivities, and the pre-party will be kicking off at Mezzanine. The lineup features Vampire Weekend, along with Cold War Kids, Chairlift, and Audrye Sessions. Should be an awesome (if not a bit late, being at Mezzannine) show.

In the meantime, if you find yourself needing fuel for your late night fire, check out the Vampire Weekend video above from pitchfork.tv. It's a great clip, featuring a solid interview with the band along with three pared down string-trio versions of songs from the record.

Not So Silent Night Preparty Features Vampire Weekend, Cold War Kids, Audrey Sessions: Tickets On Sale Now

Photo from the HAD Archive

Word just came over the wire that the Live 105 Not So Silent Night Pre-Party will be at Mezzanine on Wednesday, December 10th, and will feature Vampire Weekend, Cold War Kids, Chairlift (?), and Audrey Sessions. Plus, of course, the ubiquitous DJ set by Aaron Axelson. Let's just say our NSSN skepticism has been somewhat abated by the awesomeness of a Vampire Weekend holiday show.

Tickets are on-sale now.

Silver Jew: A Review

Last Friday night (after attending the monumental No On 8 rally on Market), we headed over to Mezzanine to check out the showing of Silver Jew, a film about David Berman's first tour in, well, ever. More specifically, the film focuses in Berman's time in Israel, and his religious as well as musical revelations during the journey.

The Mezzanine was setup in full on movie-theatre mode, with rows of folding chairs, popcorn for sale, and a monstrous digitally projected screen. We have to say that we were impressed that the club was so willing and able to perform this conversion. They had already crossed the multi-use threshold of being a club/concert/event space, and to see them fully embrace yet another option is pretty cool.

The feature was prefaced by two short films created by XLR8R magazine, which were frankly quite entertaining. They focused on Black Moth Super Rainbow and the DJ Daedalus, and did so with a fair bit of creative flair. Given that Silver Jew is under an hour long, it was nice to have something cool to fill out the time gap, and make the trip a bit more interesting.

If you (like we did) have a picture of David Berman as a slightly neurotic, obviously intelligent, somewhat abstract and spacey individual, then you've hit the nail on the head. Throughout the film, it was remarkable to see Berman simultaneously drift to the edge of sense-making, but then drop a bomb of a revelation. His conversational manner is actually not dissimilar to his lyrics and poetry: abstract and obscure, but at the same time poignant and relevant.

At first glance, Silver Jew, is more about Berman's religion than it is about his music. The number of concert scenes is minimal, and the concert footage is shoddy at best. In contrast, the number of scenes at religious monuments and in Israeli daily life is actually quite high. Throughout the film, Berman talks about his new found religion, how it's changed his perspective on life, and how it contributed to the decision to decide and tour.

However, all of these religious scenes actually serve as a veneer to a more subtle point about Berman's music. In realizing his new found religion, Berman also seems to have realized that he had been making music all these years. In one scene, Berman talks to a fan and says that he thought he had "never made anyone happy", but that the tour has made him realize that he can do just that. It's as though Berman's Judaism opened a door for him, that then allowed him to realize his full potential as a musician.

Today, all of this is somewhat old hat: Berman's been highly prolific, sober, and touring for a few years now. Still, seeing this film one realizes that you are seeing the emergence of Berman as a musician at the very root of his development. There are very honest scenes of Berman having realizations that he's creating music that makes people happy, and that those people can make him happy too. Is Silver Jew a genius music film? Probably not. However, as a film about what it means to be human, it's spot-on.

Silver Jew Is Showing At Mezzanine Friday Night

Last year, director Michael Tully released his documentary of the Silver Jews entitled Silver Jew. Essentially he followed around Dave Berman and Co. while on tour in the wake of Berman's recovery from the world of drugs and alcohol. Well, the film has made the rounds, and will now be here right in our own home town! Mezzanine (in association with the San Francisco Film Society) will be showing the film on Friday night. What can we say? We love Silver Jews, we love eccentric documentary cinema, and we love booze - this showings a win on all fronts! See you there...

Free Midnight Juggernauts Show Next Week At Mezannine

Australian outfit Midnight Juggernauts are making their way across the Pacific for a US tour (including Coachella, which, if you missed the memo, is next weekend) The band stops in San Francisco pre-festival next Wednesday, April 23rd at Mezzanine. And....guess what? The show is free! Apparently if you get there early enough, there's going to be free vodka too.

To our ears, the Juggernauts have a largely synth-powered sound that has a bit of a dark vibe, and seems to share a sonic palette with our recent faves MGMT. For some reason it also reminds us quite a bit of Supergrass. Not sure what that's about....maybe we're way off base. Anyway, free show, free vodka, can you really go wrong? We thought not.

Stream: Midnight Juggernauts - Dystopia

Tomorrow Night @ Mezzanine: Ghostland Observatory

While not everyone appears to love them, the word on the street is that the Ghostland Observatory show that we (unfortunately) missed last year at the Treasure Island Festival was killer. Sure, you need to be in the mood for a late night at what is primarily a dance space with a great sound system. However, if you're going to see a band that draws frequent comparisons (both good and bad) to Daft Punk, then doesn't that seem about right? The show is 9 PM tomorrow night at Mezzanine, tickets are still on-sale.

mp3: Ghostland Observatory - Heavy Heart

(Sorta) New Music: Black Kids

We here at H.A.D. have been digging on Black Kids' free EP for the last week or two, which until recently you could get for free at their website. Apparently the hype for this Florida band has reached that fever pitch where "free download" becomes "buy the single". We're a little skeptical of such maneuvers (we're looking at you too, Vampire Weekend), but all good bands must be signed by record companies, and so out the door go the free mp3s.

That being said, Black Kids are indeed a good band. The 4 track EP Wizard Of Ahhs is an awesome dose of psuedo-new-wave dance music, with immediately brings to mind The Cure. Well, at least if Robert Smith weren't completely miserable and whiny all the time, which is kind of impossible. That's what we like about Black Kids, though: they manage to capture a fair bit of passion and angst, while at the same time keeping the fun and danceability at a maximum. Crank the volume, and enjoy yourself some pop musics.

Black Kids are playing Coachella on April 25th, and then coming up to SF for a date at Mezzanine on the 26th. Seeing as how we're not big Dark Side Of The Moon fans, we'll be catching them here, thanks.

mp3: Hit The Heartbreaks
stream: Black Kids MySpace Page

More Canadians: Do Make Say Think and Apostle Of Hustle @ Mezzanine In November

If you read here regularly, you may be getting the idea that I have some kind of strange obsession with the various offspring of Broken Social Scene, and I guess you'd be right. Along those lines, I was excited to discover that Apostle Of Hustle will be opening for Do Make Say Think on November 3rd at Mezzanine!

The former is the side project of BSS guitarist and vocalist Andrew Whiteman. The band offers a bit of BSS flavor, but focuses more on rhythmic diversity, Latin guitars, and a less "poppy" feel, in general. I saw them open for Andrew Bird at the Fillmore, and they really delivered a fantastic set. The latter is a band having no relation to BSS (aside from also being natives of Toronto), but definitely riding a wave of critical praise. I've never seen DMST live, but their sound seems to involve a lot of the atmosphere and diverse instrumentation of Apostle Of Hustle, offering and even more "post-rock" repertoire. If you're feeling the atmospheric instrumental vibe, one would imagine it'll all work out to be a great show!

mp3: Apostle Of Hustle - National Anthem Of Nowhere
mp3: Do Make Say Think - A Tender History In Rust

Band Of Horses Returning To Mezzanine As Headliner, New MP3

In what is presumably a reaction to heavy ticket sales for last night's show with Dinosaur Jr., Mezzanine has already booked Band Of Horses for a return date as headliner on the 23rd of November. The show was sneakily announced in the "calendar" section for last night's show, and has yet to appear on the site's November schedule. The tickets go on sale this Saturday, September 15th via ticketweb, so get your web browsers up and running. The date seems a little odd (night after Thanksgiving), but I guess the long weekend will at least give the folks who are in town a reason to party....

As an added bonus, the band has put forth the single from their new album Cease To Begin. Linkage kind courtesy of Aquarium Drunkard....

mp3: Band Of Horses - Is There A Ghost

Sunday Night Music: Band of Horses and Dinosaur Jr. @ Mezzanine

If you're up for some music late on a Sunday night, then you're in luck. Tonight at Mezzanine Band of Horses and Dinosaur Jr. will be doing a set that will undoubtedly follow Mezzanine's notorious late night trend. Pre-sale tickets are sold out, but depending who you believe, there are still some to be had. According to the Mezzanine web site, doors are at 8 PM and the show is completely sold. According to ticket web, doors are at 9 and there should still be some available at the door. Judging by craigslist, there are lots of "for sale"'s, and very few "wanted"'s - I'd imagine you can dig something up.

!!! (chk chk chk) @ Mezzanine 9/25

Hot Off The Presses: Former local Sacramento-ites (now New York transplants) !!! (Chk Chk Chk) are going to be in town for a show at Mezzanine on Tuesday the 25th of September. These guys put on an awesome live set, and my only disappointment is that they decided to leave California for greener pastures. Nonetheless, their recent disc Myth Takes has some killer tunes, not to mention album art that will blow your mind (check out the vinyl!). Be forewarned: the last time I saw them at Mezzanine they went on LATE (after 1 if I recall correctly), so make sure and be prepared to hang for a bit.

Tickets go on sale this weekend via ticketweb.

Stream: Chk Chk Chk - Multiple Tracks

Grizzly Bear At Mezzanine 9/15

Grizzly Bear have received a fair amount of hype in the past few months: they toured with it-girl Feist, they were lauded by Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy in the New York Times, and they're all over the blogosphere. In lieu of all this hype, I decided the reasonable thing to do would be to check them out for myself. Last month, I used my handy-dandy emusic subscription to download their 2004 album Horn Of Plenty. On first listen, the album seemed okay to me, but nothing spectacular. I let it settle for a few weeks, and tried again. More of the same. Then this Saturday, I had this urge to hear this disc, and so I threw it on and listened. And listened again. And again. And again. Now I was on a rampage to hear their new release, Yellow House. Unfortunately, it's not available on emusic, so I was gonna have to go retail on this one. Except: the whole album is streaming at their site, and it's fantastic! I usually feel like internet-hype is always a bit of a let-down, but in this case I'm happy to be a convert. The change was slow and steady, but I'm now firmly in the Grizzly Bear camp. This development makes it all the more exciting that they'll be playing at Mezzanine on the 15th of September! Mezzanine shows usually roll pretty late, so it's nice that it's on a Saturday night. It's being billed as a Treasure Island Festival after party, supported by Another Planet. If you're like me, and only going to day 2 of the TI fest, then this'll be a nice way to warm up the night before. As always, if you do like the stream, do these guys a favor for their kindness, and buy the disc. Enjoy!

EDIT: Grizzly played the 826 Bookeaters benefit in NYC, and kicked out an awesomely bizarro version of Paul Simon's Graceland! Check out the mp3 below...

mp3: Grizzly Bear - On A Neck, On A Spit
mp3: Grizzly Bear - Graceland (Live @ Bookeaters)
Stream: Grizzly Bear - Yellow House (Full Album)

Wait-in-line time for Dinosaur Jr....

If you're planning on seeing Dinosaur Jr. and Band Of Horses at Mezzanine in September, you'd better get out your hats and mittens - looks like the pre-sale is completely sold out. Here's hoping for a little Indian Summer...

mp3: Dinosaur Jr. - Almost Ready
mp3: Band Of Horses - Funeral