Lou Barlow

Lou Barlow of Sebadoh

They must have played for about 3 hours, some songs of which I was stoked about, but mostly it was so loud my ears almost exploded, standing next to the stage monitor. Some kid yelled to ‘turn it up’ which Barlow then decided to turn the monitor to face him, but the closest he could get was straight at me.

Sebadoh

Jason Loewenstein

Barlow made many hilarious references to being old now, none of which most of the crowd (early 20′s) would get. He talked about how the tee-shirts on the last Sebadoh tour sold out, so he decided to print an additional 300 or so for this one. This show in Brooklyn that night, was their last show of the tour, and they would now be hauling the 300 or so extra tee-shirts back home, as they hadn’t sold hardly any. “This wouldn’t have happened to Guided By Voices”, Barlow said with resignation.

Then this joke:

“Hey, why did the hipster fail at karate?”

(silence)

“He couldn’t get past the white belt!”

(silence)

“I guess you would have to be an old hipster to get that one.”

Me, and maybe 4 others in the crowd laughed. That alone made me happy I went and endured the ‘mosh pit’ (?) some sweaty, smelly kids started in the front row.

Sebadoh

I managed to get this video of Together Or Alone. The only song of the night my internal camera mic could handle without totally blowing out. One of my favorite songs off Bake Sale:

Below is a video of The Lemonheads performing Its A Shame About Ray at Bowery Ballroom that I recorded that night with not so amazing sound as I didn’t have an external mic with me (after the images):

And according to their website, they will be coming back 1.12.12 to the Knitting Factory, NYC.

Here is the hardly legible set list, scribbled out on a soiled slab of cardboard:

The Lemonheads set list

Evan Dando

Click on the link for more of my photos from Steven Malkmus and The Jicks at Academy Records on Brooklyn Vegan .

Jaja of Ninjasonik standing in the downpour:

The back patio of HOV feels like your BBQing with 500 of your closest friends – except your ordering french fries from the Frying Dutchman and trolling through ankle deep rain to get to the free Heineken Light beer stand. This show required maintaining a positive attitude, considering the band line up made no sense at all, leaving everyone bound to both love and hate something.

Starting the night was Team Robespierre, a synth-punk, electro pop cute boy band from Brooklyn. They were a fun segue, and audience energizing sound to Japanther, local Brooklyn punk duo.

Something about drummer Ian Vanek screaming and spitting into a yellow telephone receiver mic makes me curiously want to scale abandoned buildings with him and then have a picnic; his sound and persona bordering between sexy and horrifying.

Speaking of sexy, how did New Orleans’ Big Freedia The Queen Diva get the slot following, right before Against Me!? Perhaps it just fit in right before her scheduled next performance the same night at The Morgan in Bushwick, and (as she told me backstage) an exhausting day of photo shoots and interviews.

The Sissy Bounce Queen brought nothing short of high energy, ass shakin’ hits, and a whole crew of dancers, including bootie bumpin’ dancer “Frohawk” who raced out the door right after to sing onstage with Handsome Furs that same night. I overheard one guy saying,” I don’t get it. Just seems like a lot of asses all over the place.” Obviously, he is not familiar with Big Freedia’s ‘Azz Everywhere‘ hit yet.

Next up late 90′s Florida punk band Against Me! really threw the ass shakin’ good times out the door – and brought the mosh pit, angry youth punching moves out.

I watched a crowd surfing guy get pummeled over into the photo pit, and land straight down on his head, his eyes lids fluttering back, but he was okay. Another guy, not so lucky, was taken out in a stretcher with head injuries. All in all, a solid punk sound, and the show Against Me! put on must surely have redeemed their reputation to more than a few fans.

Finally Tokyo Police Club, really sweet, down-to-earth cuties from Ontario, Canada closed out the show with catchy indie rock hits from their new release titled “CHAMP”.

If you had started the night with a Four Loco then downed a few Heineken’s throughout the night, you were probably teetering on that fence between sugar crash and triple vision, and Tokyo Police Club provided a pleasantly poppy soundtrack for either.

Or as the young kids out back on the patio were doing at this point,  music to make out to under the stormy Brooklyn skies.

More images from the House of Vans party on my Flickr.