Living Lately...

I went out the past couple nights and was supposed to go see Anthony and the Johnstons last night but the party filled up before me and moe could get ready. I thought that was why people RSVP'ed but I've totally been that guy who finagled his way in and took some other guy's spot so its no big deal. Its good though since I don't really have the funds to be going out like that and I was kind of in a shitty mood to begin with. I also remembered on the way there that I don't even like their overrated music anyway. Its straight up goofy and that voice bugs me. Plus they only played one(no doubt overrated)song anyway.
However, I fucking dug the shit out of the two shows I actually saw last week: The Sin Destroyers at Black Betty on Tuesday and Birdy Nam Nam at the Knitting Factory on Wednesday. I'm broke but I usually find myself spending money when I don't have any and sitting on my paper when it's stacked. I was out of the city for a week so I was ready to rock on my return. Plus I had job interviews on Monday and Tuesday and totally added those to my excuse list.
For quite some time now, I've been hearing about the Tuesday night Hot Rocks parties at Black Betty's on Metropolitan and Havermeyer. However, no sooner did I make it out to one than the last ever. Oh well, if that night was any evidence, we all missed out.
My homey Jesse BallGame from Savlas is the drunken/ed MC/Host and he's always raving about the comfortably understated hipster crowd. These kids are totally my scene and my reason for choosing Williamsburg: they don't try so hard like most of these motherfuckers with aspirations (Ha, we can't all be rock stars you know). Everyone looks and probably is pretty cool. They just aren't predisposed to cutting off circulation with confusingly expensive and naively tight (or the other way around) designer dungarees like their LES counterparts. Yeah, yeah, there are some fashion fools in the burg but like I'm saying: not these guys. These guys are cool and know how to have fun. Especially when the main event is mock christian metal.
Enter the Sin Destroyers.
I walked in mid set since we'd been at the wine bar across the street acting fruity and drinking overpriced beers from quite possibly the largest selection in williamsburg. Aftering creepy in the back door and pulling out my smuggled pint of cheap whiskey, i almost did a 80s movie spit take when i saw the stage. well, i guess you guys have the picture up top but that is a weak representation: they dress straight out of hot topic and priest surplus catalogs. i once spent an entire mass waiting my turn to do a reading flipping pages in disbelief and horror. they sell everything from purple lenten collars to holy chalices that make me question where my collection money goes (or went when i went to church). but my school mass antics and perpetual nemesis sister pat are far different stories that have little to do with destroying sin. The singer wears the full satan priest get-up: black pants, long-sleeve black button-up, geeky black-leather belt (the kind you'd notice your priest wearing during a pre-confirmation pep talk and instantly lose the last remaining shards of respect you'd been saving for him), combat boots, black leather biker gloves, and matching mall punk/auntie anne's employee stlye spike bracelets. The ouftit coupled with 'i don't care' metal guy hair made him look raw; but in a convincingly religous way. And backing him up were four equally metal dudes wearing black muscle tees with bling encrusted crosses over their chests. But i kinda stopped laughing when i realized the rest of the crowd was taking them seriously!
With song titles like "Holy Mother of God" and "Jesus is My Drug," you know they're in on the fun. Take the former for instance: it starts off with a subtle yet evil bass line followed by a def leppard riff blazing all 'dahnn digada dahnn digada...nainihnih nainihih' and then the signer starts off with 'married to joseph but he kept his old hands off and kept it all kosher...HOLY...MOTHER...OF GOD' danh digada danh digada.' Bad ass. The crowd seemed to know all the words and cheered after they announced each upcoming song. While they may have been smiling, they weren't laughing like I was: I was fucking shitting myself and turning to all my friends to make sure they were laughing as hard. Yeah, it was funny as shit and religous and all (to the point where I'm sure plenty of people aren't sure if they're kidding or not. but i am: they are.) but fuck the wine bar next time: i'll be front rowwing it hard. Jesus is my drug indeed.
As for Birdy nam nam, you really need to check out the web site www.birdynamnam.com
and watch the video. its four french djs that play a different instrument on each turntable and come out sounding like DJ Shadow showing off for scandinavian chicks. 'look baby, i can dig jazz. heres my low end.' but in the case of birdy nam nam, crazy b is the low end. i kept yelling his name the entire show. literally, at like crazy out-of-the-way moments too when it was all quiet. 'this next song is about the unemployment rate and how it killed my father. you know new york, you guys...(YEAH CRAZY B! YOU MY MOTHERFUCKER! HELL YEAH)... so much harder than LA.
Then into some more ambient beats with two rhythm guys and two solo guys that just kept doing crab walks and other invisible skratch piklz type shit. I don't want to hate and all but i dont know how much i'd enjoy the album. I really dug the show and was hopping up and down yelling the whole time but i think it was just the whole 4 turntable gimmick. you probably cant even tell the difference on record. but i dug it. i dug it hard. later nam nam.