NYC Day 2: It's Taken All These Days to Find Ya

Tonight felt like a rendezvous with a long-lost love. Well, kind of. Like Ishiguro's protagonist in Remains of the Day, I've spent months gazing at documentation pertaining to a meeting of sorts. The documentation in this instance is the Bowery Ballroom's website, and the meeting is with electro-rockers Kasabian. In planning my gigslutfest in NYC, I returned to the site often, getting myself psyched up for the event. "The Bowery Ballroom has the best sound of all the major NYC venues", people on forums say. "The Bowery is the only place they don't pat you down", others elaborate.

Well, tonight I finally made my way down to South Manhattan to attend the gig. After months of building up an image of the Bowery in my mind, going to the place itself felt strange. It wasn't terribly easy to find it, but once I did, there was an overwhelming sense of "so this is it". There was also a tremendous sense of relief, as my typically kancheong self was worried that I wouldn't be able to pick up my will-call ticket since it was purchased under my brother's name. As it turns out, all that was needed to get in was the credit card used for purchase--the management didn't give a damn about the name of the cardholder, the order confirmation number or the photo ID.

They didn't care about cameras being brought in either: despite a sign saying "no cameras allowed", audience members were brazenly snapping away with digital devices small and huge. Because the gig was standing room with no barricade, it was literally possible to shove the said devices into the performers' faces to capture the intensity of the moment. Fortunately, I had the foresight of bringing a disposable camera to the Bowery in case the rules were not enforced. I used up all its 27 exposures on the three acts (Rock 'n' Roll Soldiers, Mad Action and Kasabian). I have no idea how they will turn out, but I have seen very decent disposable camera photos posted on The Tears' official forum, and I was just an arm's length from the stage through the performances.

And how were the performances? Well I'd never heard of Rock 'n' Roll Soldiers or Mad Action prior to this gig. Soldiers were highly entertaining, with a maniacal lead singer who repeatedly abused he microphone and even leapt off the stage with his guitar straight onto the open floor below (the venue hadn't filled yet). Mad Action was less, well, mad, but also had some cracking tunes and rhythms. I worried for a moment, that Kasabian might be upstaged by their opening acts.

But this was not to be. Fact is, everyone was here to watch Kasabian, so they could get away with murder. The murder here is a large amount of pre-sequenced electronic tracks, very basic full-chord riffing and no movement at all on the part of two members. Nevertheless, vocalist Tom Meighan thrilled everyone with his Ian Brown-style spastic monkey pouts and shambolic primate dances, and guitarist Serge Pizzorno sizzled simply with his striking looks and stage presence. While much of their sonic muscle came from pre-sequenced grooves which no-one was playing (they didn't even deign to have someone faking at a synth or laptop), their generous use of "ahhh-ahhh-ahhh" chants in their songs (Club Foot, Processed Beats, Reason is Treason and L.S.F. among many others) translated very well 'live', with the whole venue singing along to those parts. In fact, such a songwriting device is probably a winning formula for rock acts (makes mental note). Kasabian played 13 tracks in all...almost their entire debut album and then some.