Dirtbombs @ Maxwell's, April 6, 2008
First off, that's what Hoboken is like? I had no idea! It's kinda cool ... very un-New York.
Maxwell's itself kind of reminds me of a dank little room where we used to go see shows in college (which, and, a cursory search shows Traxx is closed! As is Star Hill! Aw, this makes me a little sad.), cozy and unpretentious, and hipply rundown. The band came on stage one by one through the crowd, with drummer number one (they have two) ascending first and commencing a tribal beat that ceased at few times during the night. There was no preamble, just rock.
Their sound is noisy, punk/funk, garage rock, with undertones of equal parts paranoia and fun. Lead singer/guitarist Mick Collins was clad in a T-shirt reading "You Are Being Watched."
more after the jump ...
The sheer density of noise coming from the stage, what with two drum kits, two bassists and Mick, was enjoyably overwhelming. I was glad I wore my ear plugs. (Dork.) The band didn't take a break until about four or five songs in, and the show progressed pretty much with each 2 minute gem biting on the heels of the last.
About halfway through, they slowed it down with a ballad "for Sara," but there was still a strong undercurrent of jug jigga jug jigga. (Also, this. Who knew that existed?)
They've got some new stuff too, it turns out. Being that I wasn't so familiar with their old stuff, it really was all new stuff to me. Lucky me. But one of the real new ones was this little number, "Wreck my Flow."
Kinda reminded me of Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up" in the phasing of the verses. I like it.
There was a cute little moment between girl and boy bassist where they acted out the lyric to a song "he's just not into you," where he kept her at bay by holding the top of her head as she tried to get at him. My uncle used to do this to me when I was little. It was irritating. But then I told on him when as a rambunctious teen he "borrowed" my mom's car one night.
Anyway, back to girl and boy bassist, she was as expressive and active as he was stoned-looking, and they made nice little bookends on each side of the stage. The whole crew had an easy camraderie, which infused the whole room.
The band wrapped up their set by inviting the ladies on stage to dance. Some dude joined them up there and looked like he wanted to make out with Mick. Mick made fun of him, but gently. They wrapped up their set and mercifully launched into the encore right away, rather than, as they put it "go downstairs and pretend to think about whether they were going to do an encore." They played a cover of INXS's "I Need You Tonight" and some other stuff. You should have been there.
eh.www.amNY.com
