Dead Trees, Mercury Lounge, NYC. 2/26/08
My friend Meridith hit me up over AIM during the afternoon while I was looking up what show I should see that night telling me that this new band called Dead Trees were playing at Mercury Lounge and would I like to join her.
“Yeah, I was actually trying to figure that out right now.”
“Cool, they’re managed by Ryan Gentles.”
Ryan manages the Strokes. He has also managed a lot of really great bands and is sort of like New York’s celebrity manager and only about 26. When someone tells you that he’s got a new act under his belt, you typically perk your ears up… which i did.
When I got there, hanging out at the bar was Antony Ellis from 5 O’Clock Heroes, Ryan Gentles (obv), Stacey Farber FROM DEGRASSI (!!!!) (whom i met at the Stolen Transmission party last week … she’s just too fucking nice and adorable), and Albert Hammond (from the Strokes, duh). I think, if i’m not mistaken, Ryan mentioned that he found out about the Dead Trees because the basisst filled in for Albert’s bassist when he was touring behind his solo album. Something like that.
Anyway… the show. It felt really nice to see and be introduced to a relatively unknown band in NYC again. It’s felt like years since someone’s persuaded me to go to a show and the band managed to wow my socks off. But this band did. I stood there with this giant smile on my face as I watched these four adorable boys play songs that sounded like a mixture of early Wilco, Cursive and Pavement. They were charming on stage playing a catchy set that included an off-season christmas song and at one point incorporating the Beatles classic “She’s So Heavy” (but not the opening riff, which is quite easily one of the best riffs the Beatles ever had… and basically invented heavy metal).
They rarely spoke during their set, with exception of saying that they were once from Boston, but are now from Portland… and to announce their apologies for playing the off-season holiday song. The highlight of the set, for me, was the track “Shelter,” but mostly because that’s was the song I listened to the most on their myspace page… the rest of their songs were equally packed with quirk and joyfulness that could possibly lend to a future favorite album for many people.
Here’s the band performing a bass-tastic song:
The Singer:
The Guitarist:
The Bassist:
The Drummer:
The Band:
The hair of the night belongs to this girl. Why? Well, I coincidentally ran into her at the show but the first time I met her was when she was 12 years old and had purple hair… so this is in memory of that:
