Sunday night at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, folks brave the chilly wind to see Comet Gain with the Crystal Stilts.
The Crystal Stilts opened, a six-piece band hurling their recognizable echo in front of a black curtain. The room was packed. Beginning a bit like an adolescent sexual experience, the lively keyboardist asks, “Is it okay for you?” It was more than okay.Their sound is hollow in the best way possible, producing an indescribably empty emotion that contains the whole spectrum at once. The songs were short, driving and drenched in purple light. Simple because there was nothing that needed to be complicated. Some of the riffs approached an early rock and roll feel, which makes sense since the lead singer, Brad Hargett, said he’d been listening to a lot of Bo Diddley while smoking outside the venue. When talking to him in person, it seemed hard to believe such a low and recognizable sound could come from this quietly nervous guy.
But this is not you’re average nervous musician. Less than a month after the release of their upbeat new single “Love is a Wave”, the Crystal Stilts are about to launch their second European tour in May, including a stop at the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona. We can be expecting the release of a new album by the end of this year. Their set ended on a happy note with the keyboardist yelling, “You can all come to my party!”
Comet Gain, despite their desperate jubilance, didn’t hold a candle to their opening act. Coming from Brighton UK, this show was a somewhat rare US appearance. Apparently there was a missing member named Jon (drummer Jon Slade). The audience kept asking about his whereabouts, to which the singer replied, “Having a long wank in the tub!” This was the first of multiple “wank” jokes. The singing was split between a guy/girl team, the latter of whom was laying on the calculated Brit-cuteness pretty thick. At times, I was starting to get into their high-energy sound, but it almost always gave way to a sappy breakdown making me feel like I was back in the audience of a middle school talent competition. The lyrics were just awful. Just because “groovy” rhymes with “movie” does not in anyway mean you should use them as a chorus. In a crowd consisting almost entirely of awkward hipsters, all I could see was visions of pre-teen fat chicks bouncing in tube tops.
“Its odd to be above the heads,” mused the singing girl, leading one to believe they normally play smaller, eye level venues. And even though they have been a band for close to two decades, this does not come as a surprise. When asked the secret behind their greatness, the singing guy yells back, “My secret is…uh, Beer!” Exactly. Drunken courage, not talent. This led into a proposition posed by the leading lady, “We’ll wank New York off!... if you get us more beer.” When they tried to rouse a clapping session to a song that revolved around the rhyme of “city” and “pretty”, no one was down. “You’re just too cool because you live in Brooklyn or something,” yells the girl. Yeah, maybe it's just a typical reaction that a room full of judgmental kids would have. But maybe it was just a cheesy attempt to create enthusiasm for an even cheesier song. Either way, it was a little awkward. After the third “wank” reference, it was time to go. We left a couple songs away from the end of the set.
