On a cold, San Franciscan Sunday night, TV on the Radio ruined at least one song for me. Jerks. I mean, seriously, I can’t be expected to listen to “A Method” again, without recalling the 12-piece instrumental orgy that took place on stage at the Warfield. Lead singer Tunde Adebimpe shouted the lyrics, while ten of his peeps (members of the opening act, The Dirtbombs, included) marched around stage playing some sort of percussion, with one more in the back on the synthesizer. And, while I may have been a bit distracted, I’m pretty sure a somewhat de-bearded Kyp Malone—his facial afro still present but lacking in itself in all the glory it has potential to have—brought some girl out of the crowd, and gave her a chance to prance around on stage with the rest of the crew. The whole affair was madness. Put simply, it’s just not going to be enough for me, next time I listen to that plain-old mp3 file on my computer. That shit’s stale. Guess that’s one track I can delete.
Throughout the rest of the evening, TVOTR was very business-like in their approach. There was little tomfoolery between amp shaking riffs. Sure, Kyp rolled out in a ski parka and seminal member David Sitek donned a wind chime at the end of his guitar, but I chalked all that nonsense up to them just being weird. You see, neither addressed or seemed very concerned with such abnormal adornments. All the while, the band had no misgivings about what they were there to do, which was to lead a bunch of stoned 20 – 60 somethings into a state of “horn section meets guitar-synthesizer” bliss. At least that’s what yours truly took from their whole stage presence.
“Wolf Like Me” hit the auditorium with a lot more force than I had expected. It’s by far their most recognizable song and you would have thought Tunde didn’t know that. He hopped around with as much vigorous energy as he did all night, and didn’t seem to really care if you knew the words or not. This was interesting to me, as I’ve seen a lot of bands put some lackluster efforts into their most popular tracks. TVOTR seemed to have taken the higher road here, and rocked our socks off anyway.
“Dancing Choose” is the one song off of Dear Science that I honestly don’t care for, but watching it live was a whole new ball game. Tunde gave it new life for me, and turned in a performance that sounded like it was far more than the shout-rap I’ve always taken for coming off the album.
In a lot of ways, TVOTR reminds me of a modern day Talking Heads. Their stage antics are strange, they play with a fierce amount of energy, and their songs tackle a string of definitions that don’t necessarily fit under the realm of one genre. Both bands hail from connections made at art school and consider their home to be amongst the other eight million people who live in New York. But, for me, the differences end their. That, and I have no experience seeing David Byrne and friends in concert, nor will I ever. Sad. For now, I’ll turn to the quiet confidence best personified by Tunde and Kyp.
For a band that didn’t have much to say between their songs, TVOTR really put on a show that seemed very dear and personal to their audience. Every song had a legion of fans and excess voices from the audience to accompany Tunde’s delivery. Clouds of smoke filled the auditorium, but I guess that can be expected when New York’s top current art-brat rock band comes to town.
Artist:
www.tvontheradio.com
www.myspace.com/tvotr
Download:
TV on the Radio – “Crying” – [mp3]
Album:
Dear Science is out now. Buy it on Amazon.
Related Articles:
Dear Science Review – [Album]
TV on the Radio w/ The Noisettes – [Live]
