Grizzly Bear + TV On The Radio, Irving Plaza 10/17/06

It was raining pretty hard tonight. I was waiting for Snacks in Union Square, and I took refuge under the awning of Virgin Records. I look over to my right, and there's Kyp Malone, afro-enthusiast (that's the haircut, mind you) and 1/3 of the brains behind TV On The Radio. And he'd like to know what time it is. So I told him. And I'd heard that the Thin White Duke was going to be appearing at the show tonight, so I say to him, 'Hey man, I'm gonna be at the show tonight, and I hear Bowie might show up?' And he said, 'I dunno, man.' But he must really have not known, because Bowie didn't show up, and you'd probably say 'no' if you could in a situation like that, to curb the dissapointment and all that. Anyway. There was nothing dissapointing about it, rather much to the contrary, Bowie or no.

But first, Grizzly Bear.

Yellow House, the second album from the ethereal folk band, is high up on my album of the year list, and should and could be a contender for the real list, whoever that belongs to. If Brian Wilson, Sigur Rós, Enya, Devendra Banhart and Peter Gabriel lived in a small yellow cabin in the dark forest of Montana in the late 19th century (but had access to electric guitars), their all-star supergroup might have sounded like this. But maybe not. In this case, the music really does speak for itself, but I'd like to point out that, during the dimly-lit opening set, the four men of Grizzly Bear, in a line across the stage, all singing like they were in the bottom of a well, utilized the following:

1. Electric Guitars
2. Acoustic Guitars
3. an Electric Bass
4. Drums
5. Xylophones
6. a Marimba
7. a Moog Synthesizer
8. an Autoharp
9. Shakers
10. a Vocoder
11. a Recorder
and 12. a Cowbell

Grizzly Bear - Little Brother (mp3)
Grizzly Bear - Knife (mp3)

Grizzly Bear - Shift [live in The Bathroom] (video below)


David Andrew Sitek's guitar has wind chimes dangling from the end.

It's amazing how different two bands can be. After 15 mintues of quiet reflection, Snacks and I were thrust into the jerky world of chopped tempos and horn samples that is TV On The Radio.
Kyp Malone is the backbone of the band, standing very still and quietly singing his extremely high accompaniment to Tunde Adebimpe, who is neither quiet nor still. His microphone in his right hand, he runs around the stage flailing his left like it doesn't belong to him, like there's a devil inside. And of course, David Andrew Sitek (or 'the white guy' to those of you more visually-centered people) pranced around, his wind chime dangling all over the place. The show was non-stop noise, and even in between songs there was something going on in the background. The encore was the best part: the band (5 people) called out Grizzly Bear (4 more people) and all of the roadies and friends backstage (9 more people). They were each given some sort of percussion instrument (one drunken guitar tech was viciously beating a bottle of Jager with a hanger), and the group collectively went into 'Ambulance' from the record before last. With Sitek beatboxing, Grizzly Bear's drummer drumming, and everyone (including the audience) joining in on the 'dum dum dum dum dum dum' bassline, it was a bit of a magical moment.

TV On The Radio - I Was A Lover (mp3)
TV On The Radio - Ambulance (mp3)