Apostle of Hustle Takes Over Mercury Lounge With Sights Set On Central Park

While fellow Broken Social Scene members Feist and Kevin Drew were wowing Town Hall last night, Andrew Whiteman and his band Apostle of Hustle were playing a much lower profile show at Mercury Lounge. Apostle of Hustle’s sweet genre-blending tropicalia-tinged folk rock is a great way to chill out on another humid night. The trio played a couple songs from the Cuban-inspired debut Folkloric Feel, and a lot off of probably the year’s most overlooked album, National Anthem of Nowhere. Andrew Whiteman danced with his guitar, shaking his hips more like a Spanish mariachi than the Canadian native that he is. It’s great to see someone move around and feel into what they’re playing the way Whiteman seemed to. Often prospering from heavy use of layering on their records, the songs sounded just as great being stripped down for the live setting, especially on highlights “Chances Are,” “National Anthem of Nowhere” and “My Sword’s Anger.”All in all, Whiteman and co. entertained the crowd with accidental wine-spilling, stories of George Bush’s severed head, matador-style dancing and mainly some really wonderful tunes.

This concert was the first of many chances New Yorkers will have to see Apostle of Hustle. They will be playing at Mercury Lounge on the 18th and 25th, Union Hall in Park Slope on the 17th, and your best chance to see them will be when they play a free Central Park Summer Stage show on Sunday, June 24th.

Photos courtesy of [Jonny-Leather]