THIS WEEK IN SHOWS

Hey…so we’ve been out of the show listing game for the past two weeks, partly because there just haven’t been too many shows going on due to the holidays, but mostly because the editors have been out of town, assessing our life goals and watching old movies in bed. Anyway, it’s a new year, so time to get back in it:

TUES, JAN. 5

Real Estate, Babies
Brooklyn Bowl
8:00 PM, FREE, 21+
I think our reviewer Kyle McGovern described the evocations of Real Estate better than I can. He said they call to mind “the kinds of scorched summers that seem tedious while they’re happening and glorious when they’re not.” I know I talk about the weather a hell of a lot on this, a music blog, but man, when the heat’s out (again) and you’re duct-taping your windows shut, sometimes sunshiney music is exactly what you need to remind you that it won’t be long till you’re once again dropping ice cubes down your shirt and sticking to the subway seats. Do all the imagining you can at this free show on Tuesday.

WEDS, JAN. 6

Babies, Total Slacker, Beach Fossils, True Womanhood, The Sundelles
Glasslands
7:30 PM, $7, 21+
Ever since we found out that Kevin from Woods and Cassie from Vivian Girls were getting together to make Babies, we were like, “Yeah, let’s cover that, man, that’s gonna be the hot new shit.” But we’ve yet to see them, so one of our New Years resolutions is to get on it – might as well plan to see them twice in one week in case we flake out again. Votes for Glasslands versus Brooklyn Bowl? Well, Max, the more sophisticated JM.com editor (if you ignore his taste in beer) truly loves him some Beach Fossils, and Erin, the editor with the more impressive collection of go-go boots, is a big proponent of The Sundelles.
More on This Week In Shows

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JezebelMusic.com @ Public Assembly
August 22, 2009 | Buzzer, Impediments

photo by Marcus Lauer

An hour and a half after Impediments were scheduled to take the stage at Don Pedro’s on Saturday night, crickets were still chirping on the stage. Musicians periodically skulked through the equipment to prod at their instruments, and every errant drum hit raised the crowd’s hopes as they sweated out their alcohol in the front room of the bar. Finally, stretching the limits of “fashionably late” to the breaking point, Impediments took the stage. The young and energetic group from the San Francisco Bay Area were merciless in blowing out their audience’s eardrums. They may have looked almost too young to be handling their instruments, waving them around theatrically as if Guitar Hero was more age-appropriate than real guitar, but they were intent on recapturing the crowd’s attention by brute force. Singer Nick Allen delivered his vocals at a volume whose pain levels varied between intolerable and excruciating, making it difficult to remain in the room. Song after song blasted onlookers with walls of sound constructed of the same three chords and lyrics too distorted through the cranked-up mic to comprehend. There was plenty of raw punk rock energy in the music, but the songs quickly began to sound oppressively similar. Drummer Rene Macleay often struggled to keep up with the rabid energy of the guitarists, though he started almost every song with the same four drumstick hits to set the tempo, making the set even more predictable. As they continued, however, and the band gained confidence from the growing crowd before them in Don Pedro’s sweaty back room, the sound got tighter and the songs got better. By the time they finished, most of the room was dancing and everyone onstage was covered in a satisfactory coat of sweat. Especially given the age of its members, who otherwise wouldn’t even be allowed in to Don Pedro’s, Impediments have potential.

Buzzer – another Bay area band, featuring lead guitarist Mike Liebman and bassist Ray Seraphin from Impediments – took the stage after a brief cigarette break, delivering a much more musically mature set with just as much punk attitude. The two musicians who had already played with the first band excelled in the more melodic climate of Buzzer’s sound, which boasted a welcome element missing almost entirely from the Impediments’ set — occasional silence between notes. Liebman especially proved to have been hiding great talent in the Impediments’ noise-soup — his guitar parts were all over the scale and quite impressive. Drummer Colby Hewitt began the set with formulaic 4/4 beats like his predecessor, but gradually moved toward more experimental rhythms in later songs, keeping the crowd from getting bored or complacent, and the guitarists similarly weaved their melodies around the beat in patterns that far outstripped the standard punk-rock chord stock. Their surprisingly hook-laden songs had a darker cast in general than the first band’s, but this didn’t stop the audience from dancing even more wildly, bringing a benevolent chaos to the sweaty venue. The band later mentioned that the Don Pedro’s show, which was halfway into their U.S. tour, had been reinvigorating. Perhaps that was the real key to the show’s success: Buzzer looked like they were having as much fun as the thrashing crowd, and they finished on a triumphant note.

by Helen Buyniski