Radio 4 at the Highline Ballroom

Went to my first show at the Highline Ballroom last night. It was Radio 4 and Jesse Malin. It was a whole big John Varvatos/Spin Magazine benefit for Free Arts NYC. I agree with Music Snobbery (and have to say I appreciated the heads up) that the Highline Ballroom is fine as a performance space, a nice big room, but kind of pretentious. Definitely has more of a nightclub feel. Drinks are ridiculous...$10 for a Makers and Coke (which actually is a dollar cheaper than Hiro) and $7 for a Bud! The bartenders were pretty good though, the ones at Hiro can be a bit cunty. The crowd was a bit hellish, but I am blaming the fact that it was a benefit, ie. the couple that were in line in front of me were having a whole "Oh, we didn't want to have a late night, but then when we heard good music, fashion, VIP, open bar, we had to come out!". Riiight. It was all a bit schmoozy. Whatever.

Radio 4 played a really good show. I have seen them...a countless number of times. They played all upbeat songs, spanning a few of their albums...I was actually hoping they would throw in Ascension Street or something more mellow so I that I could tear myself away to get another drink, but no luck. Here is some of what they played, not in order:

Enemies Like This
Absolute Affirmation
Dance to the Underground
Caroline
As Far As the Eye Can See
Too Much to Ask For
This is Not a Test
Party Crashers (can't remember if it was this or something else from "Stealing of a Nation"...possibly State of Alert, cut me some slack, I slept a whopping 4 hours last night)
Calling All Enthusiasts
Start A Fire

I'm probably missing a few.

and a new song! "Relentlessly Turbulent"! It's quite good. Dave has a lot more vocals on it than in previous songs. It has a good bass line and beat and is really catchy. It sounds quite different than any of their other stuff. I can't wait to hear the rest of the album, but that is quite a way off.

Back to the weird crowd that I wasn't wild about...as hellish they were at times, I have to say, they did seem very receptive to the band. They got a lot of applause and a decent amount of people were getting down and having a good time.

I stuck around for some of Jesse Malin's set. I honestly had no idea who he was. Looked him up on wikipedia just now...still not really sure what his deal is. Not my cup of tea personally, but I had to stick around to remedy accidentally text messaging Anthony Roman instead of Anthony my roommate "Hello lover. Where are you?". Hahaha. Awkward but I am really amused after the fact.