Nina Nastasia / The New Year @ Northsix; Brooklyn, NY

The weather was perfect yesterday afternoon, so I headed into Williamsburg early. I walked up and down Bedford. I went record shopping for the first time in over a month. I was very proud of myself for not emptying my wallet–which I very well could have done. After a few drinks and a buffalo burger at Mug’s I went to sit on the waterfront, where I phoned people I’ve been ignoring all week.

On the Waterfront (large JPG)
On the Waterfront 2 (large JPG)
Destroyed Truck (large JPG)

I arrived at Northsix a bit on the early side, so I grabbed a seat in the front room. At one point, I looked up from a text message to see Nina, her entourage and the New Year’s touring party making their way out the front door. Bubba looked at me with a hint of recognition so I stood and greeted him. We shook hands and spoke for a few minutes. I gave him a copy of the Austin/Dallas chapter with his completed/edited interview, and he thanked me for ensuring he would have something to read on the return flight to Dallas. He said he’d catch me after dinner and we’d talk more.

The first set of the evening was a band called Kahoots that sounded a bit under-rehearsed, ergo I wasn’t too impressed with their set.

Nina took the stage accompanied by Joshua Carlebach on accordion (he played on The Blackened Air). She played mostly new songs, which musically sounded fiery and lyrically sounded brilliant. Josh played very minimal parts (if at all) on the new numbers, which sound markedly different from her past albums. She looked and sounded to be using different picking patterns and different chord changes/structures than her older material. She seemed to grow more comfortable as the set progressed (which is nothing new for her). At one point she joked about, “being a person of very few words.” Also, at the outset of “Oh My Stars” she started on an E-minor and thus began singing in the wrong key. Ah, the price one pays for having perfect pitch…

After the show, I bumped into her near the merchandise table and told her she put on an amazing show. She thanked me, and I responded by saying how I saw her five years ago open for Shellac (“Oh, that was so much fun!” She said), and I was hooked after seeing her and her band that night. She touched my arm, thanked me, and asked my name. I think I said, “Evan?” I don’t know. I was falling in love.

Unfortunately, my hard-drive and the FatCat Records site are both malfunctioning, so I can’t give you the names of the new songs she played.

Setlist:
New Song
New Song (“How I like a fight…”)
I Say That I Will Go
Oh, My Stars
New Song
You Her and Me
Little Angel
New Song
New Song
Stormy Weather
Jim’s Room
New Song

The transition between sets was very quick. The New Year actually set up all their gear before Nina went on, so all they had to do was take away Joshua’s folding chair and Nina’s two microphones. Matthew Barnhart was there doing the band’s sound. So, basically, the band stood at the side of the stage until he had climbed the stairs to the sound-booth and then they took the stage. Just like the last time I saw The New Year, the first two songs sounded a bit gritty and then they hit their stride. Josh McKay played more guitar than keyboards, so most of the set featured four Telecasters playing simultaneously. To say it sounded “huge” would be an understatement. It’s easy to be mesmerized by Chris Brokaw, who is one of the most fluid drummers I’ve ever seen live. His movements appear effortless. Towards the end of the set, the band played a new song called “MMV,” which had a very The End is Near sound to it. The lyrics are very gut-wrenching. After it was finished, Matt joked that the band only needs another nine songs and then they’ll have a new album. They played a two-song encore. The jam at the end of “18” was beautifully drawn-out.

After the show I talked to Bubba as he broke down his equipment. I asked if what Matt was said was true–because last summer Bubba said that the band would usually have more material written by then than they did–and if they still didn’t have anything written, it wouldn’t bode well for a new album any time soon. He said it wasn’t exactly true, but that “MMV” was the furthest along in the writing process. I then told him how I spoke to Steve Albini about the fight they had at the beginning of the Transaction De Novo sessions. and how Steve had called Bubba “a cry baby.” Bubba laughed and said, “Whatever, he’s an asshole! He’s a dick, and you can tell him I said he’s a dick!” We laughed, and after some small talk we bid each other farewell with promises to keep in touch.

Setlist:
Age of Conceit
Half A Day
Chinese Handcuffs
Reconstruction
Plan B
Disease
The Block That Doesn’t Exist
Carne Levare
MMV
Newness Ends
Stranger to Kindness
Encore:
Gasoline
18