Well I finally get some downtime from all this working I've been doing to update this bad boy. I went to a few events these past couple weeks I've been gone, so it's time to update this thing with some big shows. But first let me give you a rundown of a couple events I went to that I didn't stay they entire time for...
I went to the "Dressed" soundtrack release party on the same night as the Jadakiss show. It was a very well organized event held at the Chelsea Room, the underground bar and lounge attached to the Chelsea Hotel. It was hosted by Ally Hilfiger (Tommy's daughter) and it was really for showcasing the music from the movie "Dressed."
Now if you don't know, "Dressed" is a documentary about Nary Manivong, the hard working fashion designer who defied all odds by having his work showed during New York Fashion Week, despite coming from a broken home and living on the streets when he was a teenager. Nary was at the party as well, and he was very nice and happy to come around and meet everyone. I would imagine most people in his situation are just really nice all the time and he definitely didn't let me down. Beerlao as well as some vodka brand were on drinks duty, but the music duty was on the bands on the soundtrack. Apparently the point of the event was to have all of the artists featured on the soundtrack perform a few songs of their own (including their song that's actually on the soundtrack). It sounds like a great idea, but they had 10 bands scheduled to perform that night! I ended up leaving at midnight and only about 6 bands had performed by then; it did start at 9pm after all. On top of that, the Chelsea Room is a great venue for a sleek sexy Manhattan party, however not the best place to have a real band play. They have a stage 'area', but not a real stage, and it's quite small, barely fitting all 4 or all 5 members of bands that were playing. Either way, I will touch on my favorites from the night, because after all this is an updates blog and not necessarily a blog 'entry'.
The two bands out of the six that stood out for me the most were the Annie Minogue Band and KILLCODE. The Annie Minogue Band struck me as a really good cover band, even though they didn't do any covers! They just had a very good sound, kind of like a band you would hire for a wedding or something. They're old school rock and roll, and Annie has a great voice and stage presence. I really liked their sound. KILLCODE were my favorites of the night though. They were as quintessential 90s alternative as you could possibly get at this day in age, despite the fact that they didn't really look like they sound. I thought they would be a lot heavier (or harder, which ever word works) than they were judging from their look, but they had a really nice sound, and not really heavy metal at all. Their lead singer has a great voice that kind of reminded me of Scott Weiland, hence the need for me to call them 90s alternative. Yea they were my favorites for sure. I was kind of tired by midnight so me and my friend left then, when yet another band was setting up to play. I bet they were there for a while! If you want more information about the soundtrack or the movie head to www.dressed-themovie.com and read all about it.
Now when I mentioned before that the "Dressed" event was very well organized, I am making it share blogger space with one that wasn't so well organized, but was a good show none the less: Never Hide, presented by Ray-Ban....
Now you'd think, a concert thrown by the guys from Ray-Ban would be not only organized, it would be awesome, and it would involve free sunglasses! Now if you thought that you'd be wrong on at least two out of three of those assumptions. The event was a joint partnership between the sunglasses veterans and Death and Taxes Magazine, who were the people who were supposed to have the guestlist under control. The event was supposed to start at 7:30PM, but I didn't get out of work until 7pm that day, so by the time I got down to where it was (Santos Party House) there was a huge line around the corner (this would not be the last time I would see one of these lines at Santos this month), and I was quite certain all the people on the line were not getting in, because Santos isn't very big. I walked to the front of the line anyway. Why? To see if I knew anyone on the line of course! Turns out I ran into some buddies of mine from MyFreeConcert, who let me pull off a quick skip.
At this point however there were already a bunch of people inside and more people going up to the ONE PERSON that was controlling the list. Really guys? One person? He was so flustered, annoyed, and overwhelmed by the time we reached him, that all he did was ask whether we were on the list. When we responded with a yes, before we could tell him out last name he just gave us a stamp to get in, saying "it's crazy man I don't even care anymore!" Ok, fine by us. In we went...
The guys from Ray-Ban as well as the people from Death and Taxes Magazine didn't do any decorating, and they didn't have any free sunglasses either! Instead they had these weird frames that said 'Never Hide' on the top of the that you could stick your head through and/or take home. It was free so you know I took one! Tiger Beer and 42Below Vodka were on drinks duty that night and since the open bar only went until 9pm, and it was already after 8pm, we had some catching up to do. On to the performances?
I put a question mark there because I really only saw two performances before I had to cut the show short and head home; I had to get up early for work the next day. And let me just say, this whole work this is making it very difficult for me to party my way through New York City every night, but that's neither here nor there. When we first cracked the door the performance DJs known and Punches were on stage doing their thing. They play a lot of techno and some house, and their mic-man usually sings along to the songs that are playing. It's pretty much three guys on stage playing songs they like and dancing to it. You get the feeling that they couldn't care less whether you were enjoying yourself too, because they sure were!
After they were done dancing around and sort of including the crowd sometimes, it was on to the first band, who are a musical duo by the name of Javelin. One guy is playing the drum kit (YES!) and the other guy has a microphone and a bass guitar (as well as a sampler), and they just play these awesome songs and sing them! The drummer plays these really fun upbeat drumlines and the lead singer will sing all kinds of stuff, from their own stuff to just randomly covering other artists (like Lauryn Hill and even Lil Wayne). The boys from Brooklyn know how to move a crowd, that's for sure. It was funny to see people's reactions to these guys because I feel like most of the people in attendance didn't really know what to expect, myself included. But once everyone heard the 80s beats emanating from the drum kit (YES!) and the random vocals and electronic background coming from the lead singer, they couldn't help but dance. I dare you to listen to "On It On It" and try not to dance. I'm listening to it right now as I type this and I'm dancing in my seat! If you've never heard these guys perform or ever heard any of their stuff I would suggest giving them a listen, they are just flat out fun, and they really rocked Santos that night. I left soon after they were done with their show and was walking out with a few girls who were Javelin fans, and they couldn't have but complain about the performance. Apparently they did a "whole bunch of covers and new songs instead of their older better stuff." I thought their performance was great but apparently it's not nearly their best, according to the disappointed fans. That's awesome! Now I have something to look forward to the next time I see them. Woohoo!
No comments:
Post a Comment