"We are the Hard Nips from Brooklyn," lead singer Yoko Nips (not her real name is my guess) shouts out after a song into their lively, fan friendly set at Webster Hall, Friday night, March 31st.
In glittery miniskirts and pouding beats, Hard Nips are a modern Runaways raised in the Hanoia Hilton, a brittle bouncy thing who take all the fun of a 2010 song like "Fantasy Cinco" and crush it through their drummer, who pounds hard center stage.
They sing harmonies, but when a lead is needed it is usurped by Yoko, a shimmering visage who shakes her mane and stomps her heels as she dances across the stage. But the sound is not what I am thinking it is going to be. I'm expecting fast loud rules, but the band is more alt rock, the song constructions fly out and return with mid song deviations and the guitarist is not playing only three chords.
Hard Nips are better on record. Though I haven't heard their latest release, the 2010 EP I Shit You Not is a powerful and strange thing. Perhaps the problem was, in Webster Hall a Roches meets Ramones concept is gonna be a little hard to sell. I found them, despite a little boring. And this about a band which not only have an hysterically funny name for a mostly Japanese female band but threw out fortune cookies mid-concert.
The problem is the songs are a little difficult to translate on stage, they are at odds with the bands persona. They should be opening for Girls.
Grade: B