At 2:00pm, I found out I would be unable to hang out with my cousin… something about time constraints. Honestly, I don’t know why I expected a flight from Colombia to arrive in the US on time. Since I was already in the car, I stayed on I-78 to the Holland Tunnel. I crossed over the Williamsburg Bridge into Brooklyn, where Ian, Ben, Bret and Ilya were already waiting to catch the 4pm Serena Maneesh show at Soundfix. I met everyone at the Academy Annex, where I was informed that there might not be a daytime performance. Ilya and I took a leisurely stroll down to the waterfront (we passed two of the guys from Grizzly Bear according to Ilya, who can pick out indie musicians in a crowd easier than he can his own friends) where we admired the view in the unseasonably mild weather, sparked up a j and tried to skip stones.
Just as I expected, Ilya throws like a girl.
Feeling refreshed, we met up with Ian and Ben on Bedford and went to a few record stores, where I was conned into throwing down a ridiculous amount of money that I had no intention of spending. I am too easily swayed. Nevertheless, I got the first Ash Ra Tempel album, the first two Kraftwerk albums (parking cone covers), Tweez, the Third Velvet Underground album (s/t) and the first Suicide album.
We walked back to Soundfix. There was still no sign of a show, but a few of the band members were handing out copies of their first EP Fixxations (one side plays at 33rpm, the other at 45rpm) and t-shirts. After a brief chat I turned around and saw Daniel Smith (Danielson Famile, Br. Danielson) standing beside us, so I asked if he was going to lend anyone the giant tree costume to wear on stage tonight. We spoke about his family and he said they’ll all have new costumes when they tour later this year.
Our gang reconvened at Kim’s and then we met Amanda (Ian’s girlfriend, not his sister) for dinner at an expensive Spanish place. When we finished, Ilya left and Ben and I went down to Ludlow to wait for Ian to run some errands. After a round of drinks at Motor City we went to the show.
The first act of the evening was an Alien8 band from Montreal called Kiss Me Deadly, who mix indie-pop with some electronic elements. They sounded very good, maybe I’ll steal their album off the Internet. Ian spoke to somebody in their clique who informed him that Esoteric–a wonderful record store in Montreal–has closed down. Such a shame.
The next band on the bill was Asobi Seksu and they sounded like your run of the mill Interpol/Yeah Yeah Yeah’s group… and just as boring! At one point I got up to get a soda (no caffeine intake all day = massive headache for Evan) and I bumped into the guitarist/vocalist from Serena Maneesh. He recognized me from earlier in the day so we spoke for a few minutes. I noticed he was holding a copy of the new LP and I asked if they had any copies for sale. He said they only had three for sale tonight, but he would put one aside for me. Apparently the band pressed 200 copies of the album and each comes with a special insert that had the number of the copy handwritten on it. We shook hands and he introduced himself as Emil and thanked me for my support, I thanked him for the generous gifts earlier in the day as well as the record, and went on my merry (buzzed) way.
It was almost 12:30am when Serena Maneesh took the stage–all seven of ’em–and set up their gear. Lots of pedals and amplifiers. Three guitarists (one who sings), a female bassist (who is Emil’s half-sister?), a drummer, a violinist and another female backing vocalist. They had about twenty minutes of technical difficulties before they left the stage. A series of loud pulses came over the PA as they all hopped on stage and started noodling awkwardly for about twenty seconds. It sounded like they had no idea how to play their instruments and then in a flash everything kicked into gear and “Drain Cosmetics” came together in an awesomely loud, driving force that seemed unrelenting. In a live setting, the band revolves around the bassist. Without her low end melodies cutting through the guitars, all you can hear is white noise. Until she started playing you didn’t have that feeling like you were listening to an actual song. The setlist was short. They played seven or eight tunes in fifty minutes. There were some nice droney intros and some improvisations to take up the space between songs. The last tune (“Your Blood in Mine”) rang out for about ten minutes before stopping on a dime. There was no encore.
The crowd was really enraptured by the performance. There was a lot of dancing kids up front near the stage. I hesitate to use a cliche like, “there was something in the air tonight!” but at times the thought popped into my head. During one brief interlude, Emil thanked everyone profusely for making the first American show(s) so wonderful. You could see him trying to soak in the room as he closed his eyes for a few moments, then reopened them and smiled at everyone. In all, it was a stunning show.
I apologize for the large-sized photos.
Video of “Your Blood in Mine.” (51.8 MB) quicktime required
Everybody say “Thank you, Ian!”
