The West Coast is the Best Coast

Finally got a chance tonight to see two of my favorite new bands of 2006 -- The Little Ones and Birdmonster.

Los Angeles' The Little Ones were the first of three bands at Bowery Ballroom and, amazingly, the room was pretty full for their 8:30pm set. I'm not sure if people were specifically there to see them, or whether it was a matter of the crowd being largely teenage girls who assumed the 7:30 doors meant that's when they were supposed to show up. (Who exactly were they there for? Are Elvis Perkins or Matt Costa big in the high school set?) Either way, the crowd was pretty receptive, and the band seemed to appreciate it. And while the band started slowly, by the second half of their set they sounded fantastic. If memory serves, they played pretty much the entirety of their EP, and two other songs. Hope they come back to NYC soon.

From Bowery I walked across town to catch Birdmonster at the Knitting Factory. If I thought there were a lot of teenagers at the Bowery, there were twice as many at Knitting Factory. When I asked the guy at the door why there were so many kids, he angrily muttered "Battle of the Bands" and proceeded to yell at several 16 year olds trying to take a lit cigarette into the club. Thankfully, the kids pretty much stayed in the upstairs stage area, meaning the Tap Room downstairs, where Birdmonster were playing, was almost entirely a 21 and over affair.

The kids didn't know what they were missing. Birdmonster tore it up. I still think the Whigs are my favorite new live band of 2006, but Birdmonster are this close. I'd love to see them play a show together sometime. Check out some pictures below. There's a lot more at my Flickr account (see Flickr badge in the left-hand column). Now I'm off to D.C. in the morning for the rest of the weekend, so don't expect any updates until Wednesday..

The Little Ones




Birdmonster