Readers of rock nyc should need no introduction to Modern Hut, they released my favorite album of 2013, Generic Treasure and the extreme lone folkie Joe Steinhardt, who along with Zach Gajewski owns Don Giovanni , who records under the Modern Hut moniker has been a good friend to us for knocking on five years now.
Yeah, I loved Modern Hut but live, Joe performed a solo folkie set almost like an Andy Kaufman put on: it was weird, some of the most tuneful , albeit downbeat , songs ever written were given an off-center and strangely intrigued live setting. It’s like he was daring you not to like it.
I actually recommended Joseph play with a full band but he had something else in mind, borderline performance art, music as an intense entanglement. And, when I got used to it, I understood it. But I think I would have preferred a full band.
In this video, Modern Hut go electric. A guest of Chris Gethard ‘s self funded public access show, Modern Hut as seen here are actually Joe plus Screaming Females, and the result is a very comfortable mix of the two extremes. The pace is slow, and weary, but the beat is much larger than we are used to, and while Joe has a sort of blank weird charm to him, the band look as though they’ve just arrived from 1978 –a mix of the Knack and Roxy Music. By the end of the song, Marissa is performing a sizzling solo to send it all back home.
Oddly, I don’t prefer it to solo Modern Hut and that’s one good reason to watch it, because I assumed I would and while it is perhaps more engaging, it’s ense of disengagement isn’t as powerful.
Watch and see what you thing
