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01:33 PM - Beat Radio @ Union Hall - December 29th 2006
For all my excitement over Beat Radio's (FREE!) album The Great Big Sea I just hadn't gotten out to one of their shows yet. Luckily last night they were playing at Union Hall and I wasn't in the mood to go into the city so I did the usual skateboard across the Gowanus into my old neighborhood. I showed up pretty early but there are worse places to be sitting around for an hour waiting for a band to play. When they did finally start, it was like the room just lit up - the crowd (mostly full of girls, interestingly enough) seemed to know all the lyrics and wanted to sing along. Brian Sendrowitz has a slightly nervous way about him in performing but he sings with a knowing smile that makes it seem like his lyrics are more than just words in songs, but rather something that needs to be said right then and there. Perhaps it's a little 'emo' or something along those lines, but whatever you call it these are masterful pop songs that just work exceptionally well. For whatever reason the recordings sound a little claustrophobic (in a good way) and I never imagined them coming from a whole band - I keep feeling like there are similarities to primarily one-man bands like Self, Eels, and Grandaddy so that seems to fuel my (incorrect) perception of Beat Radio as something other than a full band. I don't know what more I can say to express how impressed I am by this band - I know I've gotten pretty excited by a number of local bands lately so I may sound a bit repetative with my enthusiastic praise, but I can't help it - when I hear something great I've got to let people know about it. Beat Radio are one of those bands. I'll say it again - go download all 11 tracks from The Great Big Sea and make friends with the band on Myspace. Their next show is the Battering Room / Pop Tarts Suck Toated "Antifreeze" show at Bar Matchless on January 13th with Mistakes (it's been too long since I've seen them!) and more. That's the same night at the Man in Gray / Nakatomi Plaza show (which has been moved from Northsix to Europa) so I won't get to be there (though I'll be right around the corner so maybe I can run back and forth between the two shows!), but it's pretty nice to see two of the best local bands sharing a bill like that.
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