There’s a Ghost in This Room (Wolf Parade/Sub Pop Showcase, Bowery Ballroom)

Are you ready for some New Wave Carny Punk?  With a Theremin?

Everyone’s stumbling over themselves trying to anoint Wolf Parade the next Arcade Fire... something that should make their upcoming gig – as Arcade Fire’s opening act – interesting.  But the Parade – despite being a group of energetic kids from Montreal with an energetic stage act – marches to a totally different drummer.

Yes, both "-ade" acts do have the same number of letters in their names.  Stop that.

The difference between AF and WP is like that between a salve and iodine, joy and fun, the eccentric and the insane.  Arcade Fire’s about seeing a light, Wolf Parade’s about shutting your eyes and rolling around in the mud.  It’s dirty, dark music, and it’s got a lot of kick to it.

[More on Wolf Parade after I sleep for three days.  For now, pictures:]

Yes, WP’s singer-guitarist looks like a lost Culkin sire; shipped north by some subclause in the NAFTA treaty, perhaps.  But he’s a fantastic frontman;  the boy's got this wicked sarcasm – he came out to the press-filled CMJ audience and said something like, “It’s a shame we have to take a break from all the photo shoots and interviews for something as unimportant as a rock show” – and a great big lock of hair he swirls around to great effect.  He announced his band as the "Queen Haters (From Canada)" and "Tyrone Slutrock & the Paranoids."

Unfortunately, Rogue Wave’s Gram Lebron (below) is only his band’s guitarist (occasionally switching to keyboards or drums); if the Wave’s frontman had even an eighth of this guy’s charisma, they’d be irresistible.  But other than the bop-friendly “Every Moment,” all their dull ditties would limp along lifelessly... until – and this happened during almost every single number – there'd be an engaging late-song surge:  You’d be bored to tears, wishing a song were over; suddenly it would get good... and as soon as you started enjoying yourself, it would abruptly end.  A band with that name (I'll admit that I usually get them confused with French Bossanova cover band Nouvelle Vague) should have a little more crash-bang to it; a surf-punk outfit, perhaps.

RW also had the world’s most unexciting surprise guest, fellow Sub Popper and center for the Seattle SuperSonics, Chad VanGaalen. Chad came out and mumbled some back-up vocals on one song; he didn’t really seem to know the words.  Corporate synergy, we salute you.

The band’s drummer, Pat Spurgeon, does have a lovely head of hair.  Call it the Guarini Effect:  ‘Fro’s are making a comeback.  Earlier today, at Rothko, I caught the Hot IQ’s (a self-described “wit-pop indie rock trio” from Denver, CO).  That’s their bassist Brian Feuchtinger, on the right;  Spurgeon’s on the left.

When I saw Kinski a few weeks back I commented on the amount of pedals and wires their guitarists and bassist have.  Well, now I offer photographic evidence:

Watch where you step.  Tonight they were much better than they were at the Mercury Lounge.  The larger venue seemed to inspire them to rock bigger, and the shortened set kept jammy redundancies to a minimum.  It still took “Semaphore” to make their show take off – it’s one of their few really distinctive songs – but they managed to keep that momentum going, this time.

Early in the evening, Eric Johnson of the Fruit Bats (who are playing a free show at Sound Fix Records tomorrow (Saturday, 9/18)) said, “I can see some people out there that are really into it, and some people that’re just like, ‘Yeah, whatever, where’s Wolf Parade?’  Well, let me tell you:  I discovered Wolf Parade.”  During Wolf Parade’s set, that band’s guitarist joked, “I’d like to thank Eric Johnson of the Fruit Bats for discovering us.”  Running gags, just to confuse all them CMJ walk-ins.

Here, Johnson sings an almost-convincing rendition of “I am Not Colin Meloy, We Are Not the Decemberists.”

And finally, or firstly:  Earlier tonight I finally managed to catch North Carolina’s The Comas (not Coma, who have now renamed themselves “Unlove”) when some of the members performed a short set upstairs at Pianos.  The good news and bad news is that North Carolina’s The Comas are now New York’s The Comas.  They’ve relocated here, and their lush, pretty stuff is definitely a welcome addition.  The bad news is that I’d resolved to avoid NYC bands, during CMJ.  Tricked!  I was tricked!

Okay.  Sleep.  Will try and sort out notes and pics and stuff this weekend.  Or week.  Or month.

For more photos, go to my Flickr account.

tags: wolf parade  concert photos  comas  indie music  rogue wave  fruit bats  sub pop  concert reviews  cmj  kinski  

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