Gil Mantera, Art Brut, and Handsome Dick

Thanks to my good pal Bob Ferguson, who presides over the hipster blog extrawack!, I spent Wednesday living the life of a cool rocker kid, taking in four bands and hitting three Lower East Side hotspots in a single night. We started off at Pianos, where we caught an excellent set from an up-and-coming and eccentric alt-pop band from Montreal called The Lovely Feathers in what will surely be their last NYC show in a room this small.

The Lovely Feathers

Next we moved to the Bowery Ballroom for the sold out Gil Mantera/Art Brut show. We got there early enough to see the end of the amusing, if uninspiring, set from Robocop Kraus, who promised, but failed, to deliver "the greatest song we've ever heard." Gil Mantera's Party Dream came next. Having never experienced the Party Dream live, I was totally unprepared for what I was about to see. Ferg tried his best to warn me, but it was no use. Two guys came out on stage dressed like they just came from a gig at an Allman Brothers cover band show, and proceeded to launch into a Madonna-Kraftwerk-Rush-Skynard-Fleetwood Mac mish-mash that quite possibly could end up ranking as one of the best live shows I've ever seen. By the end of their set they were very drunk and stripped down to their underwear, and had won over the entire crowd with their rockin' good humor and slick tunes. (Check out the Party Dream sound here.)

Ultimate Donny, one half of the Party Dream

Art Brut closed out the live segment of the night and made good on all their brash, punk promise with a set that hit every corner of their forthcoming (and excellent) debut release 'Bang, Bang, Rock and Roll.' (For those that are interested, the Art Brut single 'Emily Kane' holds a top spot on my Best of 2005 compilation. E-mail me for a copy.) The band endeared themselves to all the baseball fans in the audience by starting their set with a bit of 'Enter Sandman," throwing gas on the brewing Mariano-Wagner song feud with a deft bit of local sports knowledge.

Here's some crude video of the Art Brut performance at the Bowery.


We capped off a spectacular night with a drink at Manitoba's, where a friend of extrawack! was spinning records. Manitoba's happened to be featured in Time Out New York shortly after my visit, by the way. The highlight of the night? Being carded by owner Handsome Dick of The Dictators at the bar, marking the first time in my life that a punk legend has ever asked to see my ID.