A funny thing happened on the way to The Duke Spirit show on Tuesday....
Dirk and I could not find the Bowery Ballroom. Ok, so yeah you're going to find out that I'm not the downtown LESider you thought I was. Ok, you probably didn't think that, but as many times as I've been to Mercury Lounge, you'd think that I'd have no problem finding Bowery. I mean, they ARE in the same neighborhood. I partially blame hopstop, and the man that we stopped to ask for directions at the liquor store. But I thank the nice couple that told us we had to walk back towards the bridge. And of course Liela.
So here's the deal. I'd never seen a show at Bowery Ballroom before. Dirk had only been there once. We were pretty certain that we'd passed it somehow (even though we were being all eagle eyed with the lookout for Delancey). But we were walking and walking and didn't see it. So, after too much walking, I decided to ask this nice couple which way Delancey was. They told us to go back where we came from so we started walking. And walking. And walking some more. I decided to try looking it up on my Blackberry again, and saw out of the corner of my eye as two people walked by. Dirk said, "Hey I think that was Liela." I said, "huh?", stopped, and looked back. And sure enough it was Liela. She must've heard him say her name, because she looked back in our direction. So did Luke (who plays guitar) who was walking with her. So I said to Dirk, "Maybe we should just ask her where the Bowery Ballroom is," so I did. By this time, her and Luke had walked a pretty good ways, but that didn't stop me from yelling "LIIIIIIIIEEEEEELLLLAAAAAAAAA" down Bowery. She turned around and stopped and I started running towards her and she started coming towards me. Sometimes I can be really outgoing.
So first off, Liela Moss is totally the sweetest person ever. I'd met her and Toby back in February at the Union Hall show where she was super nice and remembered that Dirk and I were at the show the night before at Mercury Lounge (you know how I love that stuff.) Anyway, she had the best smile on her face and I asked her where the Bowery Ballroom was. Isn't it awesome when you can ask a person from London where something in New York is and they know!?! She said, "Oh it's actually really close by, just another block over," and I was grateful to know that we were close. Oh yeah, and it didn't suck getting to talk to the lead singer of one of my favorite bands again either. We thanked her and she and Luke went back the way they were going, and we headed towards Delancey. And of course, we saw the street sign clear as day starring at us when we reached our destination. How could we have missed it? Who knows.
Don't know what time it was, but by the time we went inside, Chief were already on stage. I'd read about them Paper magazine (the beautiful people issue with Joanna Newsome on the cover) so I was like, "Oh yeah! Those guys." The crowd was definitely loving them, and they played a really good set. They had a laid back, folk groove to them. Great harmonies too. The Pierces were next and Catherine and Allison did not disappoint. Their vocals were haunting and confident, but very sweet. I'd only heard one of their songs before, but was impressed with their set. I especially enjoyed the song, "Boring," and think it sounded even better live than on record, which is always nice. And of course it was cool to see that Russell Simins, who plays drums for Tiny Masters of Today, was playing with them.
The room was pretty packed when The Duke Spirit took to the stage. They walked out to "I Do Believe" which is a 43 second track that opens their new album, Neptune. Then they launched into "Send A Little Love Token" and proceeded to unleash all of their awesomeness on a very appreciative and excited crowd.
Even though I've only been listening to The Duke Spirit for about 3 years, I'm certain that Liela Moss will go down as one of my favorite lead singers, male or female. When she's on stage, you cannot keep your eyes off of her. She's mesmerizing to watch. Besides the gem that is that fantastic smokey voice of hers, she moves pretty much non stop, banging her tambourine and dancing, her blonde hair flying. And even though she wasn't wearing her signature feather, her outfit (a shiny gold sleeveless top, with leggings and black boots) looked great.
But of course, The Duke Spirit wouldn't be the Duke Spirit without those four awesome guys that Liela performs with every night. Toby, Luke, Dan and Olly are all incredible musicians and we're all fortunate that this group of people found one another and decided to play music together. Olly is an animal behind the drums and I love the back and forth between Toby, Luke, and Dan.
The band played mostly new stuff including "This Ship Was Built to Last" (which is the most EPIC song I've heard in quite some time), "Sunken Treasure," "Into The Fold" (which Liela said is "about conviction"), "Sovereign," "Neptune," "The Step and The Walk" (which had the best Liela dancing and tambourine banging of the set in my opinion), and "Dog Roses." They also played oldies like "Red Weather," "Lion Rip" (which I hadn't heard live before, but sounded amazing), and "Love is An Unfamiliar Name." The best was when they did their very last song in the encore, which couldn't have been anything other than "Cuts Across The Land." It was perfect and got every old Duke fan in the house crazy with excitement when they started playing it. I truly love this band and I know that 2008 will be a great year for them.
If you've yet to pick up Neptune, please go to your local music retailer and get it ASAP. You can even get it on iTunes (which is what I did back in February). Every song is fantastic. Feel free to get your own tambourine and bang it along with Liela. Although stay away from the harmonica, 'cause she's got that shit down.
I took loads of pictures but the one at the beginning of the post is probably my favorite. See the rest on flickr.
