Ba-da bum bum bum, ba-da bum bum…I just can’t get TV on the Radio’s “Halfway Home” out of my head since the band kicked off Central Park’s SummerStage at Rumsey Playfield with a big bang this Friday. But I’m not complaining. In fact, I’m still pretty amazed by the band’s performance.
I had been listening to Brooklyn’s biggest band on my iPod for some time and knew the guys could play some pretty impressive music, but the weather was making me grumpy. It was freezing cold (was it really June and not April 5th?) and raining (they were even selling three dollar ponchos at the gate). The walk there from Grand Central was about 12 blocks, three avenues and one forgotten pair of rain boots too long. I started to doubt the umbrella-and-puddle-filled night ahead of me and regretted paying $30 for the benefit concert; so I hid under the hood of my raincoat and prayed for golden sun.
Finally I arrived at 6:30 with a few friends (an hour after they opened the gates). It was my first time at SummerStage and I was immediately drawn to the funky, colorful patched quilt hanging on the back wall of the platform. We walked over to check out the T-shirt situation and I decided that maybe the evening wouldn’t be too bad after all. Pushing my way to a decent standing spot, it seemed that I had arrived just in time: though it took some effort to get the umbrellas down in front of us, the Dirty Projectors gave a decent show. The main guy was dressed in quite the sweater (I think I’ve seen my grandma in it, but he still pulled it off) and those girls really now how to use their vocal chords, giving the band an offbeat and unique touch (but really, did those sounds really come out of their mouths?).
Anticipation, raindrops, and plastic cups of beer filled the gap between the two acts. The DPs did its job pumping up the crowd and when the five men from TVotR took the stage, we exploded in applause. We needed to get heated up, and Gerard, David, Kyp, Tunde and Jaleel were ready to do it. They played mostly songs from their latest album Dear Science, but also played a fair selection of pieces from their debut Young Liars.
It’s easy to get lost in the mass of up and coming junk—there’s enough of it out there. But in order to stand out, you really need to have something special and TVotR does. I’ve been contemplating what it was for a while, but the concert confirmed an idea I’d been throwing around in my head. As an English major, the first thing I check when I listen to a band is the lyrics: TVotR easily passes this test. From Dear Science, “Dancing Choose” mixes hip-hop and grunge to tell the story of “newspaper man” living in the city, while “Red Dress” (ruby lights supplemented the song) juxtaposes intensity with delicacy. The words to the songs are poetry—they’re beautiful and deep and fun at once. But it’s the way in which the words sung by Tunde Adebimpe relate to the other instruments (bass, organ, synths, samples, guitars) that made the rainy-day crowd go wild and scream “Encore” when the band stepped off stage to take a five minute break.
The voice has never been more of an instrument; it blends in with the other noises to create a powerful and appealing sound. TV on the Radio’s concert was more of a mood than anything else. Towards the middle when they played “Staring at the Sun,” I realized that the rain actually added to the performance. They were the perfect rainy-day band—a little sadness mixed with enough thrill and spunk to make you move. The middle-aged men tearing apart the stage looked like they were having too much fun not to join in. And there’s nothing better than stripping off your poncho and dancing in the rain.
Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/betweenloveandlike/
