Studio At Webster Hall

Screeching like a banshee with her black hair flaying and three keyboards and a a sound loop around her, one guy on keyboards and guitar, another chick on keyboards, a drummer and Terra Lopez herself fiddling with nobs before moving her hands mid-air like a refuge from a Lew Grossman novel where the sun never sets though it damn well should.

The new songs are played straight up, with Dave’s mumbling vocals and spaced quietude , fronting a band who can’t do much but work on the songs but tell us to clap. There is a reason why Phish are such stick in the muds on stage, the music is hard to play. M&A have precisely the same problem.

I just read a review of the band in New York Press, who compared them to a ride on Space Mountain -yep, the eleven years and counting band, lead you to those kinda comparisons. Lead by Danny Barria, who works the sound with the heel of his shoes, and sings in a manner that belies the distancing

Alot of their work is programmed so it can be easy to dismiss as pre recorded. A light show and tons of smoke machines with laser makes small clubs feel like stadium and Delonge is able to fill a stage with his presence

the band did get the momentum they wanted, and given the genre they are exercising in, they quite often transformed it with songs that keep on peaking out from the rumbling of strum and feedback.

the synth takes over. This mix is why they aren’t really 80s retro, they are more a mix of glam and modern indie, and the singer sounds like David Bowe one minute, David Johanssen the next.

by the end you gotta think the band had nothing left to add to the proceedings. I dunno if Cloud Nothings will break pop but they sure will be big on the college circuit, where they love their angst with a lot of loud guitar and drums.

For 45 minutes, Breathe Carolina were a study in artistic professionalism. The pacing immaculate, the audience rapport a study in contol, they were so good that at the end they interrupted a two hit medley with a slow one.

The band of four, Julia Kugel (guitar/vocals), Stephanie Luke (drums/vocals), Candice Jones (keyboard/vocals), and Meredith Franco (bass/vocals) came across as nearly leaderless

the rock star in waiting moves about the stage banging riff upon riff till she is doubled up over the guitar and at the end she leaves the last chord ringing, with an obviously honest “I like feedback”.

on stage the San Antonio trio seem stuck in a place and can’t wriggle out of it. They are a good, self-assured live band who are in the process of catching up to their recorded sound.