The Postelles were quite popular among girls at the Echo on Tuesday night, cute very young girls were pressing front row, a female photographer was trying to steal my spot close to the stage. Are they the next hot band? Nevertheless the quartet from New York appeared on stage with a completely unassuming attitude, really laid back, and started their catchy danceable tunes without any delay.
Their likeable music sounded as a mix of many 60s tunes you have heard, reworked with a real freshness and some undeniable hooks. I had never heard their music, and it is always captivating when something new speaks to you effortless, right away.
Frontman Daniel Balk was trying to start a NYC versus LA fight, asking the crowd to be louder than New York, but people were staying way too shy, it was not the night for surf crowding or wild thing of this kind, not that it was that kind of music, but I have seen weirder things happening. No, people could barely shout despite their visible interest for the band. Another proof: at the end of the show, I had no problem to pick up the setlist on the stage (a micro one written on a tiny piece of paper), whereas a setlist is usually the subject of many fights, I have seen people crawling on stage as soon as the last note has been played to get it!
I have to say that The Postelles were good, joyful, playful, and they delivered an energetic set full of upbeat poppy songs with Balk’s dominant and distinctive vocals; nothing fuzzy there, it was a little bit like the Strokes meet the Beach Boys, err… they covered ‘California Sun’, and if they did not really sound like the Ramones, nor Brian Wilson, you may get the idea of their harmonious chorus. Actually, you could throw in any 60s band name playing sunny songs and you would be right. Their self-titled debut album, just released early June, was co-produced by Albert Hammond Jr., and it was not difficult to hear a lighter side of the Strokes in songs like ‘Looking Glass’, ‘123 Stop’, or ‘Sleep on the Dance Floor’.
It was getting a little hot, and Balk made a wild move, threw a water bottle to the crowd and removed his shirt, but the ambiance stayed gentle and sweet till the end, more toe-tapping than foot-tapping.
I found the set quite short, they basically played some of the songs on their debut LP, plus an old one and a new one (?) ‘Running Red Lights’, however the crowd asked for an encore, which means that people were finally getting a little bolder. Me? I was asking for more after their last song ‘White night’, a perfect formula of their sonic influences that the band delivered quite fast, in less than 3 minutes, before leaving the stage with an extra large bottle of Jameson.
Set List
Looking Glass
She She
Sleep on the Dance Floor
123 Stop
Running Red Lights
California Sun
Hey Little Sister
Can’t Stand Still
Stella
Encore
Whole Wide World or Boy’s Best Friend
White Night