FRICTION NYC

A few of us made it out to The Knitting Factory last Thursday to see Art Brut, We Are Scientists, and Think About Life. We arrived just in time for We Are Scientists (billed as Art Brut 47), I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a very big fan of their music, but the trio put on an exceptionally tight set and one of the better shows I’ve seen at The Knitting Factory. I wasn’t able to get any pictures of We Are Scientists or Art Brut because the place was packed and I wasn’t about to go pushing through the crowd to get up front.

However, it was a very different story in the Tap Bar, only about 30 people (including We Are Scientists‘ Keith Murray and Art Brut’s Eddie Argos) made the trek downstairs to see Think About Life. In my book, those who didn’t come downstairs missed out. Right before Think About Life took the stage, the crowd in the Tap Bar had formed the typical “I’m not going to be the only one up front” horseshoe around the stage (myself included). Vocalist Martin Cesar wasn’t having any of that, he wanted the crowd up close, so he came off the stage and grabbed each and every one of us and pulled us up front. After that everyone was on edge the entire set, with an eye on Cesar while he jumped on and off the stage swinging around construction cones and bodychecking people in the crowd. Good stuff. Their songs were great too, think of a dancier version of Liars or TV on the Radio and you’ve got Think About Life. A little rough around the edges catchy pop music backed by an energetic live show. Check out this video of them live in their hometown of Montreal.

Art Brut finished off the night in Art Brut fashion. Overall, a great show.