29 Apr 2010 20:00 Bowery Ballroom w/ Kate Nash NYC, New York
review here
Kate Nash, who I hardly recognize in these pictures, played a show at Bowery Ballroom last night (4/29). It was her first of two NYC shows on her current tour in support of a new album. The next one is Saturday night at Music Hall of Williamsburg (it's sold out). Having recently injured her leg or ankle, Kate was walking on crutches, couldn't stand much and had to rest her knee on a stool for balance.
"Playing with a punk band, The Receeders, in her off time has served Nash well, imbuing her latest material with a compelling, believable and, dare I say, informed anger and sass, as evidenced by hyper takes on "Take Me to a Higher Plane," and "I've Got a Secret," and the fearless, stream-of-consciousness mania that encompasses the best parts of "Don't You Want to Share the Guilt?" and "Mansion Song." These are no PMS tantrums; no, these are the panicked thoughts of a successful young girl finding her inner riot grrl and licking her red-stained lips in bemused satisfaction. While Q Magazine warned readers to "look away now," I wholeheartedly disagree - with lines like "Take a piece of raw vegetable and hold it to your breast and say you stood for nothing/You were just a hole that lacked passion. /Another undignified product of society/That girl should have been a mansion," it's time to start paying attention. Nash isn't talking about knitting or shoe-shopping or a game of croquet before supper. No flower-picking, strolling, picnicking parklife here, darling." [Sentimentalist Magazine]
I believe the new UK folk scene has a serious admiration for the NYC alt-folk scene of the early 2000's. Staying consistent with that, Trachtenburg Family Slideshow spin-off group Supercute! opened the show, and were, to quote Eric, "cute".
another review here
Sassy Kate Nash shows New York she can still stand on her own two feet
April 29, 2010, at the Bowery Ballroom
By Maureen Fleming
Published: May 3rd, 2010 | 6:40pm
Kate Nash entered the stage of the Bowery Ballroom on crutches, thanks to an apparent ankle injury. “I’m kind of bummed about my ankle,” she told the audience,“but fuck it.” The sweet-voiced Brit was her usual blend of sugar and spice and sat down for her first three songs of the evening at a keyboard covered with a banner that read, “A cunt is a useful thing.” Nash then ditched the crutches, propped up her foot, and promptly broke into a triple stack of crowd pleasers that included her new song, “Do Wah Doo,” an upbeat, Motown-inspired throwback with the lyrical bite one would expect from Nash.
The singer’s short set list was comprised almost entirely of songs from her new album, My Best Friend is You, which was just released on Geffen Records on April 20. Decked in a black leather jacket plus dramatic eyeshadow and a new haircut, Nash seemed to be dressing the part for her new, edgier sound. There was “Mansion Song,” a part performance art/part slam poetry number about sex and drugs, which Nash delivered passionately from her feet, despite the injury. That was followed by, “I Just Love You More,” a song where Nash screams, “I love you, I love you,” over and over again.
“This is a quiet song, so I’m going to politely ask you shut up,” Nash told the audience before sitting down for ballad, “I Hate Seagulls.” The song moved couples to hold hands and cuddle with poetic lines like, “And I can’t find the words to make it sound unique / But honestly you make me strong.” But it was the few songs Nash sang off her first album (2007’s Made of Bricks) like “Mouthwash” and “Foundations” that had the crowd singing along at the sold-out show.
Tween-bop band Supercute! opened the show on a fun note, fronted by the confident Rachel Trachtenburg of the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. The tiny trio dressed in shiny outfits and plastic hair-bows, the perfect visual cues for songs like “Not to Write About Boys,” about having a crush on the same boy; the “Hula Hoop Song,” during which they did hula hoop; and “Candy City,” where the girls won points for tossing out Pop Rocks to the audience.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 Apr 2010 20:00 Great Scott w/ Kate Nash Boston, Massachusetts
review from here
This is the introduction to this song,” 22-year-old British singer/pianist Kate Nash said midway through her 85-minute, sold-out set at Great Scott Wednesday.
Then she belched into the microphone.
The crowd cheered.
Nash is in the United States playing small-club “warm-up” shows before a bigger tour to follow in support of her new album, “My Best Friend Is You.” She’s the type of artist who does what she wants when she wants. She wants to have fun on stage, and her audience will, too.
Nash’s show was bursting with exuberance and cut with a punky, spunky attitude - despite a sprained ankle (an injury that occurred Monday night after a Toronto concert) that had Nash sitting for quite a few numbers.
She joked about her bandaged and shoeless foot before opening with “Paris,” a bouncy, but biting number. “A size eight,” she said, “and ugly at that.” Again, the crowd ate it up.
By the time the song was over, Nash had spilled her vodka-and-cola, and requested another, which was quickly delivered.
Nash, who broke onto the scene with 2007’s chart-topper “Foundations,” is obsessed, chatty and cheerfully profane. She crams a lot of musical and lyrical ideas into her songs. She’s equally enamored of gorgeous pop hooks, bitter vocal rants and noisy guitar squalls. Think Blondie, PJ Harvey and Bikini Kill.
In “Mouthwash” and “I’ve Got a Secret,” Nash and her band drove the catchy melodies hard, pulled back and revved up again. The infectious “Kiss That Grrrl” had a Phil Spector girl group beat and feel-good vibe. But in the lyrics, Nash dissed both a boyfriend and the girl trying to seduce him.
The centerpiece was “Mansion Song,” which started as a diatribe over minimal backing. Nash tore into rock star groupie culture while the song built to a rip-roaring climax.
On the closer, “Model Behaviour,” she returned to the theme of degradation and sexual power, yelping and raving as guitarist Brett Alaimo turned up the noise.
New York acoustic bubblegum trio Supercute! - three girls ages 13-16 handpicked by Nash for the tour after she saw them play a club - opened. They were both insouciant and, in Nash’s own words, “clever.” Led by Rachel Trachtenburg, they sang of teen rivalry, pigeons and Hula Hoops - which they brought along. They also covered - and made sense of - Led Zeppelin’s “Misty Mountain Hop” and Pink Floyd’s “Pigs (Three Different Ones).”
KATE NASH, with SUPERCUTE!
At Great Scott, Wednesday night.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26 Apr 2010 20:00 The Mod Club Theatre w/ Kate Nash
review from here
On her first album Made Of Bricks, Kate Nash was the cute British newcomer who sang about needing a boy’s kiss when not singing about foundations and mouthwash.
But can the slightly quirky Nash, 22, now be simultaneously cute and shocking?
Judging by her sold-out show Monday night at The Mod Club in support of her new album My Best Friend Is You, it’s a bit of yes and no.
Opening a North American jaunt behind the record, Nash has put aside the sweet, sugary piano pop found on the strong selling debut for a meaner, at times potty-mouthed, guitar-driven sophomore record.
Heck, even before she started her roughly 80-minute set, a rather odd statement was displayed below her keyboard stating the usefulness of a crudely described female body part.
Fortunately Nash and her four-piece band led by drummer Elliott Andrews were in good humor for most of the show, with Nash getting under the skin of a few in the crowd by asking for quiet during I Hate Seagulls, a song which initially didn’t quite hit the mark.
What the singer – wearing a black and white striped dress whose bottom was attached to her sleeves – often hit gold with was a ‘60s styled soul-meets-rock flavoring on the new songs, especially the lead single Do-Wah-Doo as well as Kiss That Grrrl. Meanwhile R n B Side, a b-side off My Best Friend Is You, was a tune Nash described as what Destiny’s Child would be had she been in the group. Here she swayed to the song while uttering the cheeky lyric, “Why did you have to be such a wanker?”
Nash, who thanked the audience often when not trying to make out what people were shouting at her, also delved into her first album with instant crowd-pleasing pop ditties like Foundations, Mouthwash and the chipper Beatles-tinged Merry Happy. Most of the crowd drowned out Nash’s vocals on these songs but other new numbers which definitely held their own included the rowdy rockabilly romp entitled Take Me To A Higher Plane, Don’t You Want To Share The Guilt? and I’ve Got A Secret.
The somewhat hit-and-miss feel of the new album might have been best exemplified by the show opener Paris which hit the ground running, something which couldn’t be said about Mansion Song near the homestretch. Here Nash did a stream-of-conscious rant behind a growing wall of sound. A decent try but perhaps left to the likes of Patti Smith or PJ Harvey.
One thing which nobody could argue with Nash about was her affection for super cute openers, er, Supercute! The quirky, humorous New York teenage trio – featuring June Lei, Julia Cumming and Rachel Trachtenburg (The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players) – resembled the grandkids of Tiny Tim playing some songs on ukuleles. The group managed to surprise a few with rather nifty covers of Pink Floyd’s Pigs and Misty Mountain Hop by Led Zeppelin.
Three and a half stars out of five
another review
My Best Friend Is You
Kate Nash, Brett Alaimo and Supercute! at The Mod Club in Toronto
Frank YangWhenever I see reviews of Kate Nash’s just-released sophomore effort My Best Friend Is You that put forward the tracks that represent her well-documented discovery of Riot Grrl as the standouts and bemoan the number of pure pop numbers on the record, I have to wonder if the writers of said pieces actually like Kate Nash. Because as commendable as it is that she’s seeking to branch out beyond her precocious piano girl image and explore her interest in louder, rawer sounds, the inescapable fact is is that she’s not very good at it.
In its finest moments, Best Friend finds Nash taking what made Made Of Bricks such a delight – the fast-talking sass and hooky piano-led melodies – and honing them further, exhibiting the growth you’d expect over three years without sounding too grown-up. Tracks like “Paris”, “Don’t You Want To Share The Guilt” and lead single “Do Wah Do” are immediate and indelibly catchy sugar bombs that hold up over repeat listens, and the like thankfully outnumber those where Nash attempts to get her punk on. While “Mansion Song” actually works better than you’d expect, segueing from profanity-laced spoken word intro into a clattering, stomping sing-along, other stylistic forays like “I Just Love You More” find Nash tries to sound angry and guttural but instead comes across as on the verge of laughing hysterically – probably not the desired effect – and the lo-fi “I’ve Got A Secret” just wobbles aimlessly. But missteps aside – Bricks had its share as well – Best Friend is a largely enjoyable listen that gives Nash fans what they want… and sometimes you have to take the crunchy with the smooth.
That said, the balance of the two wasn’t what many would have liked on Monday night at the Mod Club in Toronto. It marked the kickoff of her North American tour and in rounding up support acts, she didn’t have to look too far. Rachel Trachtenburg opened for Nash before – The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players opened up for her on a number of her 2008 dates – but this time, she was fronting her new band Supercute!, which teamed the 16-year old with 13- and 14-year old accomplices in shiny outfits and giant hair bows, playing Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd covers alongside self-penned songs about candy, hula-hooping and boys. It was short, sweet and strange. Considering that there would have been an hour wait between the end of Supercute!’s set and the start of Nash’s, the unbilled set by Nash guitarist Brett Alaimo was a welcome one. Playing mostly solo, except for one song where he was accompanied by the rest of Nash’s band, he was part Libertines, part Billy Bragg and part spoken-word poet/stand-up comic. Certainly a more enjoyable way to pass the time than constantly checking my mail (especially since I wasn’t getting much mail).
At this point it’s worth noting that this show was a) all-ages and b) sold-out, which is generally a recipe for a) feeling old and b) losing a few degrees of hearing from the squealing that inevitably occurs when the headlining act comes on stage. And so it was that the crowd went mad when Kate Nash finally followed her band onstage and seated herself at the keyboard with the empowering message, “A c*nt is a useful thing” emblazoned across a sheet draped off it (the message itself wasn’t censored, just my transcription). Grinning ear to ear at the enthusiasm of the crowd, she kicked off with Best Friend’s “Paris”, which proved as excellent a set opener as it is an album opener, and straight into “Do Wah Do” and then Bricks’ “Mouthwash”, all sounding great and setting the tone for what was looking like a terrific show. She then surprised by moving over to guitar for the next song and remaining there for the next few numbers, all scrappy pop selections from the new record and all also sounding quite good.
The second half of the show was decidedly less triumphant, with the more questionable bits of her repertoire making appearances and Nash seemingly determined to redefine herself as guitar-wielding rocker chick right then and there. While some fans indulged her, even attempting to pogo or mosh a bit, most waited patiently for her to get back to doing what she did best. They were repaid with the likes of “Foundations” and “Very Merry”, but the show failed to end on a high note. Both main set closers “Mansion Song” and “I Just Love You More” came across more awkward live than on record – and as stated, the latter was pretty awkward to begin with – and the encore selection was b-side “Model Behaviour”, which gave Nash leave to do more shrieking and sent many heading for an early exit.
Poor finish aside, the night still went in the win column though only barely. This was my first time seeing Nash live and it was great to finally hear some of those songs done live – though more than three selections from Bricks would have been nice – and Nash’s rapport with her very devout fanbase was charming and fun to watch. But if she’s going to continue to try and be the second coming of Bikini Kill, she’s really going to have to work on her screaming.
The Toronto Sun, Spin, Exclaim, Chart and Panic Manual also have reviews of the show while The Daily Mail and Nylon have interviews with Nash.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25 Apr 2010 14:00 Maxwell’s JACK SKULLER’S CD RELEASE PARTY!!!!
review from here
Maxwell's in Hoboken looked more like a day care center than a rock club on Sunday afternoon, and the term "all ages show" took on a whole new meaning. Toddlers and tweens (and their parents) took over the premises, bopping to the fresh-faced rockabilly sounds of Jack Skuller.
Skuller, 14, has helped spearhead a new tween underground in the greater New York area. You can already find the good-looking eighth-grader from Weehawken High School all over YouTube, in his own video for "Love is a Drum" (his just-released debut single on the well-regarded Hoboken indie Bar/None Records) and in a cameo with the tween girl trio Supercute, who opened Sunday's show. He's also shared the stage at the Cake Shop in Manhattan with Park Slope's Care Bears on Fire and Nat and Alex Wolff, formerly the stars of Nickelodeon TV's "Naked Brothers Band."
And not one of them is old enough to drive.
Skuller, who will also perform at the Hoboken Arts and Music Festival on Sunday, got his start performing with his father, musician Eddie Skuller, at the popular "Loser's Lounge" cabaret series at Joe's Pub in Manhattan, where he belted out tunes in tributes to artists like Michael Jackson and David Bowie. But when "Love is a Drum" won a local radio station's talent contest, the Skuller family decided to record a few of Jack's songs, recruiting veteran New Jersey producer Daniel Rey, whose credits include the seminal punk bands the Ramones and Misfits.
Here's the thing with Jack Skuller, though: He's not just a cute little kid trying to sing pop songs. He understands rock 'n' roll. His clean, muscular chordings on electric guitar delivery a clarity and freshness that's missing from much of today's indie scene. Backed by the concise precision drumming of Hoboken session man Pete Martinez, Skuller rocked through his set with panache and the command of an old pro.
Growing up in a household packed with classic vinyl albums provided an education you'd never get in music school. Jack opened his set with a cover of '50s blues legend Little Walter, performed several of his originals -- including "Love is a Drum" and a new tune called "Second Hand Smoke" -- and then brought Sophie, the lead singer of Care Bears on Fire, onstage for a raucous cover of Joan Jett's "I Hate Myself For Loving You." It stopped just short of being sexy, but it definitely had chemistry.
Supercute -- three adorable girls between the ages 13 and 16, in short skirts with oversized ribbons in their hair -- opened the show with a set that included ukulele, guitar, hula hoops and synthesizer. Lead singer Rachel Trachtenburg is no stranger to show business; she's toured internationally with her parents as the lead singer of the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players.
The third act on the bill, the Indecent, features 15-year old triplets -- Emily, Maddy and Bo Brout -- along with drummer Nicholas Burrows. Based in New York City, the band's grunge-inspired rock takes a much darker and heavier approach than Skuller, Supercute or the Care Bears; but in all fairness, you can't really classify any of these young talents as teen-pop.
Tweencore, anyone?
Jack Skuller
Where: Hoboken Arts and Music Festival, Washington Street between Observer Highway and Seventh Street, Hoboken
When: Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Skuller performs at 1 p.m.)
How much: Free. Call (201) 420-2207 or visit hobokennj.org
