[Concerts] Sept in The Bruns - Pony Pants, Human Host, We Are The Seahorses

This is the start of a long overdue recap of some of the shows that have gone on in New Brunswick over the last month. In the future I will try to get these up quicker. A month is a bit long, don’t ya think? More up soon.

September 15th (I think?) - Pony Pants
So I had run across this band a few times. They seemed have a pretty cool thing going on. I had thought of them as kind of a Le Tigre dance-y electronic punk project. Their pictures showed a slightly androgynous front woman and two guitarist that looked like they could be playing for Lynyrd Skynyrd. Sounds strange? Well if you take into account that they are from Philly it makes perfect sense. I was delighted to notice flyers around town announcing they would be playing their fall tour kick off in New Brunswick at a house on the corner of Louis St and Hamilton St.

The pre-show environment at the house was very pleasant. Everyone was hanging out in the kitchen, eating food that the house had prepared for the crowd and the bands. Beers seemed easily available and one wonderful young man insisted on asking everyone if they needed a mojito. The show would take place in the attic which had been setup with couches and lights, making a great show setting. There were sure signs that this house was not experienced at putting on shows. Attics shoot sound out onto the street, the 9:00 pm start time for a three act bill, the open windows to the street for the sound to blast out of. Oh well, just had to cross the fingers and hope for the best.

First on was Mincemeat or Tenspeed. This guy had at least 20 effects pedals on a table through which he was running some fun dance beats. Knob twiddling galore! He had obviously learned to work the setup really well and the performance was fun. A good way to start the night and get some bodies moving. Next up was Foxy Lady and The Pretty LA Women. There set went on a long time. It consisted of a lot of cheesy, factory settings Casio beats and yelling and some badly replicated Biggy Smalls verses. During this set I had a great conversation with Pony Pants’ front women Emily. It was during this conversation that I realized that I had placed Pony Pants into that section of music that is fun but not serious about the art. Speaking with Emily made me reassess my preconceptions. The set that followed totally erased them!

The Lynyrd Skynyrd looking dudes flanked Emily, each having an Gibson SG and a sweet half stack to fill out the look. The play button of the backup beats Ipod was pushed and the set was on! The room immediately started rocking as the attic turned into a proper dance party. The guitarists ripped dual harmonizing lead lines that would make the metal gods proud. One of the guys even put his foot up on a prop where his monitor would be. God, these guys know how to rock an image, it was great! Emily bounced around belting out truly emotional lyrics that I had managed to overlook in my pre-show evaluation of the band. Aside from a few battles with the soundman (aren’t soundmen supposed to make things easier?), the set was going along real well. The show was building steam for both the band and the crowd with each song. Too bad the set ended at six songs with that, oh so lovely, announcement, “Get the hell out. The cops are here!”

Often when people decide to put a band together they come up with some plan as to what the sound will be. It usually goes something like, “How about Black Sabbath guitars over Black Flag drums and vocals with lyrics all about a Martian alien colony!?” or “Maybe some Dick Dale surf guitar over Dr. Dre beats with just a little bit of psychedelica?” These projects can be fun but are usually not more than the sum of their parts. Unconsciously I had pegged Pont Pants as on of these bands. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this band is much more than the sum of its parts. This is a band with catchy songs, emotional and provocative lyrics, and a killer live show. Hope the rest of their tour goes well. I bet we will see them back in New Brunswick soon enough.

September 22nd - Human Host, We Are The Seahorses
Last year Screaming Females inadvertently hung Human Host out to dry on a New Brunswick show. Two bills were combined and then us and Human Host were booted off at the last minute. We probably could have found another venue but at that point it was a god damned mess. So when We Are The Seahorses get in touch with me yelling, “Help! We were supposed to run a show for Human Host on Sept 22 but our rib shack basement venue was bought out and is now pay-to-play. Can you find us a place to play in New Brunswick?” I felt as though I had to do something.

Screaming Females wouldn’t be able to play (as we try our best not to play the Bruns more than once a month) but I would run the show at my house as a Avant Garde dance party. I bought beer, we tin foiled my basement (700 feet of foil looks pretty awesome), Reid Bingham produced a slightly disturbing video installation, and the bands played.

Human Host (Baltimore) are a band consisting of anywhere from one to about twenty members. They play most types of music as long as it is strange. On this day they played as a duo. The set opened with one of the guys on a beat up, cheap, incomplete drumset and the other guy running a didgeridoo through pedals. Out of this ambient noise the two broke into a bit more of a beat and song (with didgeridoo man now on guitar). Next up they played a song with true sections, words and maybe even a chorus. The progression from total noise to a rockin, yet strange, song was quick but seamless. This was the end of the live instrumentation. To fit with the dance party theme Human Host tapped an Ipod and went into their electronic, dance, craziness. The two guys went running around the room producing all kinds of interesting yells and woops and notes and vibrato from their voices. I believe some mistakenly self-inflected physical injury was sustained. Whole microphones were fit into mouths. There could have also been some James Brown type dance moves and splits involved.

We Are The Seahorse have a reputation that proceeds them. Rumor has it that they have been banned from most of New Jersey’s all ages venues. Needless to say I was psyched to have them play! Of course it was under one condition, “Don’t fuck my shit up!” Talk to the band and they will tell you that their reputation and bannings are largely exaggerated. Purely on a conversation with them you would get the impression that We Are The Seahorse are ready to play Sesame St. Well… its not quite like that.

The band lived up to the hype. When the Butthole Surfers are a number one influence you know there is going to be a crazy live show. To try to sum it up: tin foil dildo, nakedness, sweat, confetti, high powered light show, videos of robot sex and naked babies, sweat, spit, yelling at the crowd, thong, loud ass dance beats, sweat, homosexual love songs, ending with a noise set. Words will never do this band justice. See them before George Bush bans them from the country.

In an age were selling music is becoming a thing of the past, live shows are becoming the wave of the future. Human Host and We Are The Seahorses are two bands that will have no problem with that transition.

-Jarrett D