Dynamite Arrows, Professor Murder, Matt & Kim

Just got home from the Bowery. In short:

1. The Dynamite Arrows reminded me vaguely of a younger, less good version of the Dropkick Murphys. In a more generalized way...they reminded me of loud, kind of thrashy music you hear in the background of skateboard videos...I guess there is a time and a place for them...I am just unlikely to come across it anytime soon. At another time in my life (the skateboarding portion for example) I might have been much more into them, but not so much now.

2. On to P-murder! The reason I bought tickets to this show! Their performance was excellent. The first time I saw them was about a month ago at Hiro, and they were good then, but tonight blew that performance out of the water. They had great energy. I was dancing the whole time (which is more than I can say for the crowd...in the beginning especially, but they started to warm up toward the end). They kicked off the evening with Champion, followed by a new song which was really awesome...very dubby/dancehall-ish...possibly called "it could be worse"?...that's how part of the chorus went if I remember correctly. After those two songs I was going to make an effort to remember the set list, but it was futile...I know they played the following, but not necessarily in this order: Camron's New Color (possibly named after a beanie baby?), Free Stress Test, the Mountain, Swingzilla, That's How They Getcha, and possibly another new one. The band seemed really into it, especially Jesse and Mike (keyboardist & vocalist...and also both play tons of other things), though I could be biased b/c I was closer to their side of the stage than the others. In any case, they played a really good show.

3. Random hilarious moment I forgot about: I was listening to some horrible conversation some people in a band were having with some girl who works for a magazine...and it was just utterly painful. About 30 seconds after I thought to myself "I wish Professor Murder would go on just so I could stop eavesdropping" I heard some dude say to his friend "...yeah, I need to take my headphones off on the subway and start listening to people more"...maybe you had to be there.

4. Matt & Kim...initially they started and it was thick synthy bliss...reminded me of Daft Punk (I still can't believe they're coming here btw!!!) a bit and I got really excited b/c I had been reading all about them, but hadn't been that impressed with anything I heard. But then shortly thereafter the song seemed to lose its steam...and it wasn't just that way for one song...I stayed for probably 5 or 6 of them, and when each of them started I would be into it, but then it just kind of fizzled for me. I did enjoy Matt's commentary though. They seem very down to earth and humble, and he seems like a very nice guy. I also liked his, "this next song is a Slayer song" comment...I have been having a disproportionate amount of Slayer references lately.

Alright...off to bed, whirlwind trip home to the burbs for my nephew's bday, then back here for SMD!!!!