The Best Shows This Weekend! - Oh My Rockness

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The Best Shows This Weekend!

September 2, 2013

Written by Patrick McNamara

Thanks for opening this dynamic web feature. If this is your first time reading this, I hope you have a good time. If you’re a regular reader, I’m going to do something nice for you someday when you least expect it. So be ready.

Thursday - September 5th, 2013 A.D.

OK. The solid shows start coming out of the woodwork tonight (that’s where they hang out, I guess - in the woodwork - kinda like how I hang out on 36th street and 10th Avenue). So let’s stop being polite with this thing. And start getting real. Please. If that’s cool with you, of course. No disrespect.

No Age play Music Hall of Williamsburg. And if memory serves, these punks haven’t played these parts in a few years (a couple? one? i don’t know anymore...i tell ya, the days run away like wild horses over the hills). This will be a good show. Because I don’t think No Age has ever played a bad show. They just can’t do it. And Dean Spunt is the best drummer/singer since Karen Carpenter. And you can quote that in your press release no one reads.



Speaking of the punker rockers, Heeney play Shea Stadium tonight. I recently wrote some kind words about that new band (which you can read by clicking their name) because it’s fun to be complimentary to bands you like. It’s harder to think of nice things to say about bands who suck. Therefore like the great Buddha, Thumper’s mother, I say nothing at all. Life’s too short to waste words on what you don’t like. And I hope you remember that. But feel free to forget it too. It’s your journey, man.



Another new band I like, Prism House, play The Rock Shop. This beats + visuals duo make sounds that go all over the place. Trying to keep up with this is like splattering paint on a white water rapid and then wondering why you can’t see the picture. Prism House is cool. And you can dance to this if you really want to. But I’d be careful. Whiplash is no picnic for anyone.



Infinity Shred play 285 Kent. They’re one of those rare bands that just keep getting better. And that’s not a knock - like how getting the Most Improved Player award often means you just suck less than you used to. What I mean is, Infinity Shred were good - now they’re MORE good. And bands becoming MORE good is something worth celebrating. Which is what I plan to do. At 285 Kent tonight. (and if director Nicolas Winding Refn happens to be reading this - and let’s face it, chances are high that he is - how about you get these guys added to the Drive 2 soundtrack, OK - and make the movie MORE better than the original)



MORE good shows tonight include The Mission UK and Light Asylum at Irving Plaza + Porcelain Raft at Glasslands + Saul Williams at The Gap (34th and Broadway is where I hang out when I’m not hanging out at 36th and 10th) + Wild Yaks and Weird Womb at The Grand Victory + more + I told you there were a lot of good shows coming out the woodwork. No need for the politeness because it’s getting real, son! (do you mind if I call you “son?” because i can totally stop calling you that at any time... whatever you prefer... no harm... no foul... all good... because i totally value you as a person... thank you.)

SEE ALL OF OUR THURSDAY SHOW PICKS.

Friday - September 6th, 2013 A.D.

Do you know about this Station to Station thing at Riverfront Studios on Kent street today? Well, you will in a few dynamic blob copy lines. Station to Station is a public art project made possible by jeans. Thanks, comfy pants! Art, music, literature, food, and film will all be represented - almost all of my favorite things (sadly, nothing in the promo material suggests puppet shows). Bands playing include Suicide + Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti + No Age (hey i remember writing about them on Thursday!) + others and their brothers and mothers (assuming these bands come from supportive families). See you out there. Look for the guy in furious discourse with the sock on his left hand.



Passion Pit and Best Coast play Pier 26 tonight and this is probably the last big outdoor show of the summer (well, besides Saturday - when Passion Pit + Best Coast play Pier 26 again but whatever, you know what I mean). Yep. Summer is basically over. From here - we return to the darkness - the days work around-the-clock to shine less and die sooner - as the breeze turns brisk turns chill turns cold turns menace - the next five months moving slowly - time attempting to swallow us whole. Oh well! YOLO! At least we get to hear really great songs about the beach (looooovvvve the beach!) with really great beats for dancing (loooooove dancing!).



Delicate Steve play Glasslands tonight. A couple of years later and I’m still smitten by this weirdo beautiful song (which I’ve posted here before - but only Nicolas Winding Refn would’ve noticed). This song makes me believe in humanity and the goodness of the spirit and I just don’t know why. It’s not like there’s a triumphant key change or a chorus that exclaims “move forward everything will be OK stay true to yourself and carry on” or anything. Guess I have to think about it for a couple more years. Also, you know what other current band sounds like this? Nobody.



Depeche Mode play Barclays. And I was GOING to say that they haven’t written a good song in decades. Yes, I was going to say that. But then I again remembered the wise advice from Thumper’s mother. And then I also remembered that I can do that same thing where I say I’m not going to say something and therefore say that something anyway albeit in a covert and sneaky way. So I guess I’m doing that again. Oh well. Here is one of Depeche Mode’s good songs. And I’m not afraid to admit I like a song about someone struggling with whether they should get married or not. (pro tip: don’t over think it, bro.)



And Blink-182 play The Wellmont. I’ll talk more about them next week when they play Music Hall of Williamsburg. I know you can hardly wait a whole week for that dynamic copy. But I just wanted to quickly mention here that if you ever wanted to know what my go-to karaoke jam is - stream below and now you know (“With or Without You” is a close second with Peter Cetera’s “Glory of Love” steadily moving up the heatseeker charts).



So many more good shows tonight and I can’t dynamically talk about them all because PAGE LOAD TIME! But I’ll link to them if you want. Dirty Beaches at Bowery Ballroom + Drowners at Knitting Factory (free, baby, this one’s FREE) + AlunaGeorge and Supreme Cuts at MHOW + all those shows in that “SEE ALL OF OUR FRIDAY SHOW PICKS” link down there.

SEE ALL OF OUR FRIDAY SHOW PICKS.

Saturday - September 7th, 2013 A.D.

This night is stacked. Holy MERDE! (pardon my French) So let’s get it started before we all lose interest and move on with our day.

STRFKR (pronounced “our former name was really just more trouble than it was worth”) + Com Truise + Small Black (a band whose singer also has a surprisingly consistent 3-point shot) play Terminal 5 tonight. I like all three of those bands. So that’s always fun. See you there! Near the $15 domestic beer bar! Remember - I’ll be the one talking to the sock on my hand. My sock is purple (in honor of NYU - and that’s a reference to a joke from way back on Tuesday and it really wasn’t that funny even then - to anyone except Nicolas Winding Refn, of course - but that jolly mirthful man will laugh at anything) in case there’s more than one of us there.



The Babies play a free show at Mercury Lounge. And that’s great for two reasons. 1) The Babies are a good band and by that I mean I like the way their notes sound coming out of their instruments and 2) I sometimes enjoy not paying to see good bands. Claire Rockness really likes The Babies too. So this one’s for her. (Depeche Mode’s “Somebody” was for her too - for extremely cryptic reasons.) By the way, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I really like these KEXP videos.



Screaming Females and California X lead a good free day show at* Boyd Park today. Boyd Park is in New Brunswick, New Jersey. So assuming you’re reading this from NYC, what you really have to ask yourself for this one is, “how much do I really love these bands I go around proclaiming to love?” Don’t say it. SHOW it.

(*if someone is playing a park - do you say they’re playing “at” a park or “in” a park? please help so i don’t have to struggle with this every week - but then again, the outdoor park shows are pretty much over - because the darkness is coming, remember - so nevermind maybe.)



Comedian/ shredding face melter Dave Hill is involved with something called Competitive Erotic Fan Fiction at Union Hall tonight. It’s like, DON’T EVEN ASK! HAHA! Right? DON’T EVEN ASK! LOL!!!



Other good shows tonight include every show everywhere. Because every single show is just as valid, just as right, just as pure, in hope, faithfulness and goodness as these shows listed here, forever and ever. Amen.

SEE ALL OF OUR SATURDAY SHOW PICKS.

Sunday - September 8th, 2013 A.D.

I don’t know where you get the energy.

If you still really want to rage tonight instead of watching Breaking Bad you go do it. Who am I to sway you to instead stay in and sit on your comfy couch and see how this whole messy meth business plays out once and for all. Who am I? I’ll tell you who I am. I’m 2 4 6 0 1 !!!!!!!!!!

Click that link below. The one that says “SEE ALL OF OUR SUNDAY SHOW PICKS.” And let me know how they were. And I’ll let you know if Jesse starts talking to Hank i.e. “eating cheese.”

SEE ALL OF OUR SUNDAY SHOW PICKS.

As always, thanks for playing again this week. Hope it brought you some good vibes. Besides that whole “the darkness is coming” stuff, of course. The light will return soon enough. Because we’re all on this big rock that’s spinning around a big ball of fire in the sky. And it hasn’t stopped spinning yet. And even more impossibly, we’re not falling off of it. I mention this to just about everybody I have any type of conversation with. But I hope you take it personally, man.

I’ll leave you with one of the most beautiful songs ever written. No big deal.

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