Midweek Music...

Tuesday night was a very musical affair for me in Brooklyn.

I went to go and see Rogue Wave play at the Music Hall of Williamburg (just a few blocks away from Bedford Avenue, not too far away from the Surf Bar that Abi and I went to in the summer). I'd bought the tickets ages ago, and I'd actually bought two expect Abi to be here by now (wishful thinking), so unfortunately I went on my jolly lonesome... it was still a great gig though.

As I stepped of the L train at Bedford Avenue, a band called The Freelance Whales were performing on the station platform (performing/busking I suppose). I'd seen the Freelance Whales playing on a street corner on Bedford Avenue during my first or second weekend in New York - so it was funny seeing them again nearly 10 months later. I arrived just in time to hear them do the last 30 seconds of their last song, but it was fun seeing so people squeezing around each other on the platform.

After that I made my way to the Music Hall, stopping off at the Endless Summer Burrito Van on the way. Getting Burritos from that van was something else I did a lot in the summer, so I'm getting excited about having lighter evenings and a bit more time to do some of these nice things again, and it'll be even more fantastic to do them with Abi!

The Music Hall of Williamsburg's a really nice little venue, it probably holds 1500, or maybe less - but there were probably only 300-500 people there for the gig, and when the first support act came on, there were probably only 50 people in the room.

The first support act was a guy called JBM - it was just him and his guitar and it was beautiful. He only played for about 25 minutes, but the songs he sung were really great, he occasionally played a harmonica or sat down at the drums with his guitar for a couple of songs. It reminded me a bit of Ray LaMontagne, it was really great.

Then a band called Avi Buffalo played, they were a bit more lively. They're a band from Long Beach California, they had a very surfy California sound (I thought they were trying to sound like The Shins). A few more people started to congregate to watch them, but the room still felt pretty empty.

Then, finally... at 11pm (I was ready for bed at about 9.30pm) Rogue Wave came on!
Rogue Wave are on Jack Johnson's record label, but sound completely different to anything like Jack Johnson and Co. They've got a far heavier and fuller sound, and more energetic too. I've wanted to see them for a while, so it was great seeing them in such a small venue.

Their new album came out on that same night, so they were playing lots of news that no-one had really heard before, but they went down well and everyone was bouncing around enjoying themselves. The band were obviously having a lot of fun too which always makes a big difference.

I couldn't quite believe how late they were starting though, I can only guess that the live music laws are different here, as they were only just starting their set when most bands in the UK would be finishing - and they didn't finish playing until about 12.30am... waaaay past my bedtime!

For the very last song of the encore they played the title track from their new album Permalight - they said it was a bit of a dancy number so they invited everyone up on stage to dance with them...

Being towards the back of the room, I decided I'd just watch - but it was great fun to watch, I think if they had anymore people on the stage it would be overflowing... the only thing is that with the stage full of people, there were only about 30 of us left in the audience!