Warehouse
Frankie Cosmos
The Bowery Ballroom
August 12
Review and photos by David Chiu
Two still-rising yet notable indie rock bands, courtesy of Brooklyn-based Bayonet Records– made their presence known during a terrific sold-out show at the Bowery Ballroom Saturday night—full of brimming pop melodies, some punk DIY attitude, and compelling performances.
The five-piece Atlanta band Warehouse, who last year released Tesseract, hit the stage earlier and performed a strong set of songs that also included some new material from their upcoming record Super Low—including the title cut. (The band had recently released a new single, “Reservoir,” via NPR Music) An energetic tense post-punk sound dominated by jangly guitars, that recalls elements of the ’80s (including fellow Georgia bands R.E.M. And Pylon) and the ’90s, Warehouse were captivating but in an unassuming manner. The band’s focal point is singer Elaine Edenfield, whose unique voice verged quickly back and forth between being graceful and gritty (she sounded a little bit like Joan Jett). On the basis of their set, Warehouse is a band to watch out for.
They were followed by the headliner Frankie Cosmos, the musical project of New York City-based singer/guitarist Greta Kline (whom I saw in the audience REALLY rocking out to Warehouse and jumping up and down—she was clearly a fan of theirs). Kline and company are riding high from the critical success of their latest album Next Thing and they performed tracks off of that record as well as some new songs. The music, which sounded so intimate on Next Thing, translated quite well in a live setting (i.e. “Sinister,” “If I Had a Dog”)–the fact that Kline’s songs were so short in length accounted for many of them to be played within an hour’s span. A testament to Kline’s growing popularity is the fact that the audience members sang along with her and knew the words. There was a sense of poignancy towards the end of Frankie Cosmos’ set, maybe it this was the last one together with Warehouse, as well as Kline was playing in her hometown in front of family and friends. It’s no wonder based on the reception to her band and that of Warehouse that this event was sold-out and well-attended—it was worth being there.
NewBeats 