Another band ready for their close up is Drowners, with an English male model black leather jacket the Virgins wannabe in Matt Hitt and almost equally pretty boys guitarist Jack Ridley, bassist Eric Snyder and drummer Lakis Pavlou, they have the wild party boy atmospherics of Smith Western before they went straight and a sound which veers between the Jam and the Buzzcocks only more pop than punk.
On stage at Pianos Saturday night, Matt seemed to be having a damn good time funning the scene, thanking Caveman “for beautiful ‘ludes and backstage antics” referring to what exactly I’m not sure, because if Drowners have anything to do with any drug it sounds like speed to me.
The band, in existence just a year and already signed, start every song like they are about to set off on “Slowdown” and then knock off samey but none the worse for wear ready made pop rockers. The little girls seem to understand the bands Lower east Side faintly the Strokes without the trust fund aesthetic.
Hite is forever pushng his hair out of his eyes and sweating up a storm for thirty minutes of high octave New York rock baubles; you get the feeling they would hook you if you heard them on record but history has taught us that whatever they are today, they are just a mutation away from self important plans (pace the Virgins and Strokes to name the bands they must take after).
You can’t expect Drowners to be such careless fun forever, you just know next year in Bowery Ballroom, they will be condescending to these funtastic minor pop gems. Dumb good fun will be beneath them, I’ve seen it a million times,.
So enjoy em now with songs like first single “Long Hair” and “You’ve got It All Wrong” and (here I’m guessing) “Don’t Go Around With Everyone In Town” . The temperature is always raising with this band and they have the good fun smarts of a band that is just about to break big. “Thank you”, Matt says to the audience. “Without you this would be just a band practice”.
Got through it without mentioning Brett Anderson once.
Grade: B