bowereport

if you're curious how the VW show went the other night, it was more or less exactly like this and this said

happily and somewhat surprisingly, I didn't even feel that bad for us wrt to the intense contrast between the fairly pathetic crowd and our frankly epic performance - tbh was kind of the shitty break I've grown to expect over the past year, and I'd kind of assumed this was how it was going to go as soon as I heard we were sharing the bill with another act that had, you know, multiple booking agents, management, etc - you know, the kind of professional legitimacy that demands respect in the biz! anyway, was proud of us for keeping it focused and real and musically killin it our first show back after a 3-month hiatus, our prize new jam was bangin and by the time it and the rest of the set was goin down the crowd had definitely swelled to somewhere closer to triple digits iirc. plus if I do say myself the new light show, which I will basically claim responsibility for designing (hint, not bug zappers) and rehearsing over the past week, looked great! pics from Tod soon hopefully

and, of course, regardless of the predictably misguided scheduling, it was tough to imagine anyone caring much about openers for this kind of headliner - having not seen dudes play in about 8 month or so, I was obv expecting but still blown away by the total screaming VW-mania. fun facts, #2 on iTunes album chart, catch them on Letterman tonite, upcoming Spin magazine cover?, etc! in an attempt to get slightly ahead of the 'how high?' curve, I'm gonna predict a Grammy nomination, will give you 1:2 odds if you doubt it. I can only guess at the inevitable backlash going on in some quarters but thankfully don't have time to read it -

instead, though, I highly highly recommend Mike Powell's recent piece in the Voice (via the Breihan post), which I'm pretty sure is the most perceptive, on point thing I've read about these guys so far. typical - I don't know if it's widely recognized yet but I think Mike is one of the best newish music writers in the game right now, definitely wrote the most perceptive, revealing piece about us I've ever read (not a lot of competition there, but, still), centered around his unplanned performance in Aa's most recent Roosevelt Island ensemble last spring, along with, yes, Ezra Vibes! Aa is a launching pad for greatness, what can I say