When I first came to New York City in the 1970s, WNEW-FM was really where rock lived, the cities primary rock and roll station and famous for introducing the world to Bruce Springsteen amongst others. A great radio station. But during the 90s they missed out on grunge, and slowly faded into rock nostalgia till, owned by CBS who know how to run a radio station, they switched formats and switched formats and switched formats until 2011 when they became”Fresh 102.7″ and started serving adult oriented rock and took over the New York market.Last year they presented their first Fall Fest at the Beacon featuring The Fray, Daughtry, Kodaline, American Authors and Dog Society – a line up so unequivocable horrifying it sounds like the premise of an episode of American Horror Story.
I missed it and I would have missed yesterday’s second annual Fall Fest with alacrity except Bleachers sold out Webster Hall earlier this year (my review) and rock nyc writer Margaret Mullen wondered if she should scalp a ticket and I suggested she go to this show, where they were one of the attractions, instead. My mistake. I skipped out before headliners Neon Trees but Bleachers joined Ingrid Michaelson, Nico And Venz, and Matt Nathanson for an evening of song so bad, so boring, so uninspired it infected everything around it; it wasn’t the common cold, it was a full fledged flu and it was painful.
Bleachers, a great band, were so far off their game it was hard to figure out why they couldn’t ignite their half hour set. It took till the penultimate song of the evening, the E Street Band inspired “You’re Still A Mystery” where a Clarence Clemons-y sax solo pulled them out of the doldrums. The Cranberries cover, “Dreams”, is the only time I’ve ever wished jack Antonoff would get off stage. So Bleachers not great at all, but Matt Nathanson? I am absolutely certain he has dozens and dozens of fans, and equally certain “Come On And Get Higher” is a good enough sexual manifesto and anthem for him to deserve them, but he is a creep and his intrusion on his daughter’s privacy when reading an email from her teacher was unspeakable and rude. He moves his hips like a lizard with a hernia and he is a uniquely unpleasant live act.
Nico And Vinz are a black duo from Denmark who had a hit with “Am I Wrong” (178 MILLION streams on Spotify and counting) and they seem pleasant and very excited. Their new album Black Star Elephant is about as good as its title, and live they were too loud, the sound was unpleasant and tinny for no real reason. They need to soften it.
Ingrid Michaelson? What do you wanna know about her set? She name drops Sara Bareilles, and chased me out of the Beacon 25 minutes in. “The Way I Am” is a good song taken over by the audience and “Time Machine” is a better song with everybody joining in with the “ruuuuuuuuuuun” hook. Ingrid is a chick flick singer, she is the “Fried Green Tomatoes” of singer songwriters, her talent is wrapped in 2 x chromosomes. She is born to be third on the bill at Lilith Fair and she is a drag.
But what do you expect from the deadest of dead genre’s, Contemporary Mainstream Rock And Roll? Or a radio station that went from where rock lived to where rock died?
Grade: D+
