03/08/08 The Record Bar, Kansas City
I've noticed recently that I am absolutely horrible at anticipating the size of the crowd at shows I attend. Many times I think a show will be packed but when the band starts, the place is half full (The Hold Steady @ The Bottleneck). More often than that I'll expect a show will be sparsely attended an it ends up being extremely crowded (Battles @ The Record Bar, Midlake @ The Jackpot). This is one of those concerts that I expected to be a full house, with both bands having a good amount of buzz surrounding them. Opener A Place To Bury Strangers hails from New York and got a favorable review from all things Indie "trend-setter" Pitchfork. Holy Fuck are a Toronto band who also have been the darlings of Pitchfork and bloggers alike. I thought for sure that there wouldn't be room to move, but The Record Bar never seemed even close to selling out or filling up. At least there was plenty of room about five people deep from the stage. I had been sick all weekend before and after the show and in retrospect I probably should have skipped it, but this double-bill and the fact that I hadn't been to a show in a good while sucked me in.
If you have read anything about Brooklyn's A Place To Bury Strangers then you have probably read about how loud they are. I can attest after last night that they are indeed, loud. Or at least they use more effects & distortion pedals than most bands which in turn, makes them seem loud. Either way they were definitely entertaining. APTBS wear their influences on their sleeve as I was constantly thinking that certain songs or parts of songs sounded just like Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus & Mary Chain. If APTBS can work out their own identity on future releases and shows, they could be a consistently great band.
Headliner Holy Fuck was a Grade A dance party. Although the pairing with A Place To Bury Strangers seemed odd on paper, both bands brought such a primal and raw show it easy to see similarities in the two bands. Seeing the two keyboardists for Holy Fuck dance and bob to the rhythm as they are constantly pushing buttons and keys and tweaking knobs was really a lot of fun. A show is always a better time if you can tell the band is having fun as well. If Holy Fuck continues to play shows like they do it may only be a matter of time before they knock LCD Soundsystem from their Dance-Punk throne.
A Place To Bury Strangers Myspace
Holy Fuck Myspace
*The above photos courtesy of someone else (they aren't from the KC show)
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