37 Comments
The last time I was in a mosh pit, I got punched in the face. Serves me right, I suppose, for seeing Fall Out Boy (though to be fair, I was 13, and not actually there to see Fall Out Boy). Then last Friday the 22nd, my face was once again trampled; same skinny jeans, less studded Hot Topic belts.
The occasion?
A Todd P show.
For Parts and Labor’s record release party, Todd P had Golden Error, TheDeathSet, Parts and Labor, and Matt and Kim on hand. Fun factoid, the show was relocated from its original location because the interns and volunteers walked into a future sweatshop. Needless to say, sewing machines and moshing hipsters don’t really mix.
As expected, Todd P shows are a little grimy, usually located in obscure warehouses in the middle of Brooklyn. Though it may be a trek, the number of “cool” all-ages activities in New York is dwindling, and the opportunity to see multiple bands for ten dollars or less is a rare deal.
The show stayed pretty low-key for Golden Era and Parts and Labor, but during TheDeathSet’s set, a blossoming mosh pit had its beginnings. Body parts splayed in mid-air, bearded men spastically dancing, the occasional flinch from cigarette burns- montage of mania. However, the insanity really hit during Matt and Kim’s homecoming, the crowd were in frenzy over these local favorites (not to mention, the most adorable couple ever). During “Lightspeed,” the synchronized clapping showed just how happy their fans were to see them back in Brooklyn.
(Hey Matt! Hey random guy’s bald spot!)
Though the sound wasn’t great, the combination of Matt’s witty banter and the energy of the crowd made up for any technical difficulties, and bodily injury. People hurling through the air, girls falling over, the crowd throttling back forth as one unit…
Who said hipsters don’t dance?
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37 Comments
@The Dink Go to Primus for a moshpit.
@reni i’ll host a show in my dorm room. hawt. then both of you can stop complaining.
@... let’s go outback tonight.
@Anonymous actually that’s not what they’re talking about at all…
but great to see you try to take that higher road of annoyed apathy – two people talking about things they care about, how lame!
@wha kvetching? really?
@Anonymous give me a motherfucking break.
you go to Columbia, tuition and fees average $35,000. You can’t afford to spend more than $2 on a show? You don’t even get shows that cheap in Fargo, ND. I’d bet money your weekend 40oz budget is higher than many working folk’s daily income.
anyway, you’re also totally, completly, absolutely wrong.
nearly all shows at Goodbye Blue Monday are FREE!!!! The Woodser is always having $4 shows. Shows at galleries are largely free, Eat Records is free, Dead Herring shows are free or cheap. Death By Audio and Asterisk shows are cheap. Lucky Cat is free. Shows at Wreck Room and Matchless are FREEEEE. The list goes on…
Since you obviously weren’t aware of any of this information – and all of it’s pretty easy to come by if you know anything about the scene in NYC – I’m left wondering….
WHY ARE YOU PRETENDING TO HAVE THIS DIRE, FATALISTIC, NEGATIVE OPINION IF YOU CLEARLY DON’T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT??
and also – why don’t you get off your kvetching, bitchy, skinny lily-white ass and put on shows yourself? There’s no stopping you, go make your stamp on the world and contribute something positive.
don’t write back and try to defend yourself, just go and start organizing – NOW!
@seriously are you two actually bitching over which one of you is more “scene?” This is pathetic even by the pretty low standards that Bwog commenters have already set for themselves…
@Anonymous I can see what you mean. Todd P totally has a monopoly.
If he won’t put on a show for your band, you’re screwed because this town just doesn’t have anywhere else to independent play.
Cakeshop, Glasslands, Goodbye Blue Monday, the Woodser, 538 Johnson, the Kitchen, Rocky’s, the Tank, the Knitting Factory, Trash, Lucky Cat, Maxwell’s, Delancey, Lit, Fat Baby, Crash Mansion, Piano’s, Mercury Lounge, Eat Records, the Arm Gallery, Silent Barn, Asterisk, Union Pool, Matchless, 51 Bartlett St, ABC No Rio, Cinders, Monkeytown, Issue Project Room, the Stone, Pete’s Candy Store, Micheline’s, the Schoolhouse, Union Hall, Tillie’s, Southpaw, Secret Project Robot, Studio B, the Rats of Nimh shows, dj Mojo, Brownded Sound shows, the Dead Herring, Death by Audio, Carbon’s House, Hardcore Gig Volume shows, Wreck Room, dozens of art galleries, thousands of people who will put on bands at a party at their loftspace…
@not really the point. None of those venues are meaningfully cheap. I don’t really care about Todd P one way or another, but Silent Barn is somebody’s goddamn apartment they built in a garage, in friggin’ Ridgewood. And that’s going to be scaled up before you know it, and then what? There aren’t too many reasonably accessible neighborhoods past Ridgewood, past Bushwick, past the deep end of Sunset Park. Eventually, people aren’t going to travel two hours to see shows, and that means a lot of these $2 bands are gonna dry up. And that really sucks. Don’t just say “Oh, go to Knitting Factory”, because clearly you haven’t been there in awhile if you think that’s viable for the sort of weird bands that build the scene here in the first place.
@Anonymous this whole thread is excellent proof why Columbia kids are the lamest, most smugly clueless kids in town.
Shitting on everything, contributing nothing, pretending to have everything figured out.
Ivy league rejects.
@ZvS I lived a few blocks from Silent Barn but didn’t know about it until two weeks ago, when I went to some show I can’t even identify, and a month after I moved away.
I am sort of pissed that Todd P is already there. But, also, Silent Barn will only last like another damn week anyway, if the front of the building is any indication. Where the hell are people starting venues now? I’m worried.
@rail'd earlier this pointless description of someone’s weekend fails to be anything but a cute(sy) celebration of naive and half-hearted exploration into what is (in my opinion) destroying youth cultural life in new york city. not some specter of “hipsterism” but rather a monopolization and one-stop-shop version of DIY, of cultural production, etc.
Todd P is bad for music in new york city.
@blech bwog, institute some quality control here.
this article is a “pointless description of someone’s weekend,” but it’s also just plain bad – it doesn’t explain to any real extent what a “todd p show” is except that it’s somehow in a rundown location that the author feels cool for visiting.
it barely describes the music, so people who don’t have any idea who these bands are get left out in the cold.
and since most self-described “hipsters” don’t think a todd p show is the auspicious event the writer’s describing it as, you’re pleasing no one: non-hipsters feel alienated, kids who know what a todd p show is feel talked-down to.
and on top of that, your first reply is one bwog editor insulting another’s article and trying to be “hipper”! bad form.
@ARR Slow down there, blech–that was a respectful disagreement, not an insult. Also, moshpits are not particularly “hip” places. They’re rather unpleasant, in fact.
@Anonymous what the fuck are you talking about dude?
Todd P is “monopolization and one-stop-shop version of DIY, of cultural production, etc.” blah blah blah ??
Todd P is just some dude who puts on indie rock shows. why are you all broken up about a guy throwin parties? did he steal your girl or something?
What’s stopping you from throwing your own parties the way you like em?
@but of course This whole misunderstanding is all because of Barnard.
@sir e Oh, you coy, coy bwogger!
Oh, how you got the last word in and made us all chuckle! A Barnard joke! HOW SUPREME! Let us all find humor in your beautifully composed comment and celebrate your supreme wit.
Hurray for comment #20!
Hurray for life!
If this were Boredatbutler, people would be giving you copious amounts of green thumbs-up! Alas, the bwog can not show you the appreciation you truly deserve. Alas, thus is life on the bwog.
@kill me now wow i can’t believe i read that whole thread. my job isn’t even this miserable. i think this putts guy is probably 40 years old. doesn’t writing multi-paragraph, well-punctuated tyraids about how people take themselves and their music too seriously and don’t know how to have fun seem hypocritical? you took all the fun out of the 4 minutes it took me to read all of that shit. quit taking yourself and your music so seriously. you suck more than matt and kim.
@dr. pep i always hate it when people ask me what the music scene is like at columbia because then i have to reply: “Oh, well, we got these lame hipsters that everyone hates. That’s about it though.”
@Anonymous Sounds to me like you’re more condemning of Matt and Kim’s popularity than their music, seeing as how you bring up how “trendy” they are.
the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, etc, were far more trendy in their day than Matt and Kim now are.
Once again, typical, you’re the backlash against your college-mates suddenly liking something that was once underground. God forbid all the other kids start liking something you discovered.
I’ll be awaiting for your tirade against Dirty Projectors once they hit the big time next year (and then your return to liking them 5 years later when you grow out of mixing up your tastes with your personal identity.)
No-one said this little M&K band are as good as the Ramones, what was said is they should be appreciated in the same vein. They are in fact, a good time – which is, bottom line, all I’ve been trying to say.
@a-y b You know, putts, there can be other serious music fans. Kinds that don’t like fun acts, enjoy innovation, and don’t advertise the type of music they like. You don’t even know the half of it, it being my musical taste.
you’re right, i am criticizing matt and kim’s. anyone who can play three chords on the keyboard and do what they do. I’d rather not see bands like that selling out the bowery ballroom. And, for the record, I didn’t stop liking them when they gained popularity, I never did.
Now, I couldn’t care less whether or not you like M&K in the same way you shouldn’t give a shit whether i can appreciate their “fun” aesthetic. But, please, don’t start insulting me and grouping me amongst the hoards of music fans who wear their favorite bands on their sleeves, identifying themselves by which strain of “indie” music best suits their fashion sense. That’s bullshit and both you and I know. There’s no reason to be disrespectful.
When dirty projectors blow up — something i’m anticipating happening with this next record — i’ll be happy for him. I think he, unlike M&K, deserves it. Can you criticize me for this? Yes, please do, but dave longstreth is no flavor of the week. I don’t think he’ll be forgotten next year. or even ten years from now.
don’t be a twat, putts. no one likes self-righteous twats.
@Anonymous I’m not criticizing your music crit, I’m criticizing your inability to lighten up and enjoy yourself.
you’ve got a stick up your ass. Typical of a sophomoric college kid, you’re too interested in proving how serious you can be to enjoy your youth and just get drunk and jump around.
Matt and Kim are unique in that they can take simple songs, played on just keyboards and drums, and make them driving enough to inspire roomfuls of people to smile, jump up and down, and sing in unison. This not something every band can do, and Matt and Kim are pretty great at it. That is an intangible quality, ala the Ramones, or punk rock in general.
This is what rock n roll is about, democratic simplicity, fun, and about youth – made out of basic chords, catchy melodies, and pounding drums. When you’re older, maybe you’ll appreciate it.
@anti-youth brigade hear you me, putts, i can get drunk and jump around with the best of them, with or without a stick up my ass. in fact, maybe my favorite thing in the world is getting drunk, jumping arond, and reciting lyrics from Paul’s Boutique.
there’s no reason to generalize about my tastes because i don’t like m&k. i’m not averse to rock in the least, but i would hardly consider the trendy shit that matt & kim play rock. you’re not doing the ramones, the pistols, the clash, or any punk/rock band justice by making that comparison.
i’m not an idiot; i’m not that serious. and, for pete’s sake, enough with the age shit. how old are you? rising senior? 30? puh-lease.
@Anonymous there’s no excusing literary diarrhea, especially when it’s pointlessly negative.
@ARR A quick primer: if you’re “witty,” you’re usually clever or funny; verbally nimble. If you’re “endearing,” you get really trashed, and then fail at being “witty,” although without being insufferably annoying in the process. You get “points for trying,” as it were–like Matt at the Todd P show.
@!=synonyms for some reason, I doubt that the actual act of discernment between “endearing” and “witty” took more than a few seconds of thought. I mean, it’s not like the dude was writing a fucking paper on the literary merits of said banter.
Also, this sounds like less of a mosh pit, and more of a vigorous group rub-down.
@Anonymous also, ARR – you actually wasted your time discerning between “endearing and “witty”? you’re a boring fuck.
@Anonymous In all honesty, sounds like Ah! got old and dull three or four years ago. Maybe you should buy that Westside condo already and stop lay off the dissing of other people’s scenes.
ugha-ugha isn’t understanding the difference between FUN bands and serious, artistic bands. Both can make for good shows to go to, but judging them by the same standards is pretty silly.
Bands like Matt and Kim are for good times and jumping around, not for contemplating your navel. If you can’t enjoy them on that level then you need to step back and remind yourself that you’re still young, dude.
@ugha-ugha please, putts, don’t patronize me. you don’t need to give me a lesson in music crit. i know m&k aren’t in the same league as dirty projectors, but it doesn’t mean they (m&k) can’t suck.
there are plenty of bands that are good and fun to jump to, even some that todd p books (I’m thinking of electronic mad-scientist Dan Deacon), but there’s no excuse for being boring.
and, for the record, i’ve never contemplated my navel. well, sometimes i wonder why it smells bad, even immediately after I have taken a shower. so yeah.
@part ofmy internship look… I went to a Todd P. show a few weeks ago, and I saw the singer of Deer Hunter get a blow job, on stage… and it was weirdly mesmerizing, so props to Todd P and silent barn, I guess
@ARR Also I did not find Matt’s drunken banter at all witty. Endearing perhaps, but not witty…
@ugha-ugha stop being a “turd,” square.
matt & kim are the worst kind of electro-synth-pop duo: the kind that sucks. though, to be fair, todd p does book some good shows, namely dirty projectors.
@Ah! In all honesty, Todd P jumped the shark three or four years ago. Matt & Kim? P & L? Do better, Bwog.
@it could be worse... Proof: “The Eye.”
@ugh. stop making posts about “hipsters,” you damn hipsters.
@ARR I hate to undermine my fellow Bwogger, but I was at the Todd P show and that wasn’t nearly violent enough to constitute a moshpit. I doubt it’s even possible to mosh to upbeat synth-pop anyway…
@yeah i question someone who can’t handle the “mosh pit” at a fall out boy show