42nd Street Records

Live Review – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Last night Sarah and I went to Kung Fu Necktie (A/K/A “the best bar in Philly”) to catch a sold out by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. But, before I get to the band, let me first talk a little bit about the bar.

Kung Fu Necktie!

Kung Fu Necktie is a relatively new bar down on N. Front Street (it opened back in November of ’08). You would think, being in the working class “Fishtown”section of Philadelphia, that the bar would just be another dingy hole-in-the-wall where peanut shells litter the floor and the beer selection is limited to PBR and Bud Bottles. But, even from the outside, KFN doesn’t scream “dive”, what with its green and red trim and hand painted portraits of what appears to be the face an ancient Chinese God. Inside, the ambiance is amazing — low lit with about eight or nine booths, a long, laquered bar and not one but TWO pinball machines. The stage was sectioned off in the back with a small, square dance floor and, when we arrived, a few people sipped drinks while a record of an obscure reggae artist spun on one of the two turntables behind the bar. On a big screen that hung in the left hand corner above the shelves of “big bottle” microwbrews played a Mexican exploitation film from the 60s that featured masked wrestlers (“La Calavera” I think was the name). Their beer selection, plentiful and inexpensive, was written  on a black, hand-updated chalkboard. In between and before bands, a heavy set DJ spun 10 inch and 45 singles on the turntables — mostly punk and indie rock with a little hardcore thrown in for good measure. 

I think the exact words that Sarah and I said to each other at least six or seven times during the course of the night were: “damn, I wish this place was right down the street from us”. 

The crowd was sparse early on and Sarah and Sarah and I took a spot at the corner of the bar, opting for a pitcher of Long Trail (only $12!). The first band, The Brown Recluse Sings, went on around nine fifteen and played for a solid thirty minutes. They were merely OK, playing a mixture of hard strummed “twee” indie-pop that was good for background listening but not much else. The singer’s vocals were not turned up to the right volume so most of his lyrics got lost in the haze of jangly guitar and thick bass. While not remarkable, they were not terrible either. Just a young band trying their hardest to find a sound somewhere between airy pop and sparse, indie emoting.

However the second band , The Depreciation Guild, really caught my ear. Their mix of shoegaze with complex electronic compositions reminiscent of Dan Deacon or any of the recent 8-bit elite washed over me as I sipped a Vodka and Redbull. And, while the crowd was almost non-responsive to Brown Recluse Sings, their attention was quickly grabbed by the torrent of noise that came from the stage. Though their elecronic “transitions” between songs were a little awkward, they put together quite an impressive thirty five to forty minute set. One that would lead me to seek out their Myspace page today and listen to the tracks they played last night, trying to pick up on the little flourishes that stuck in my head as I went to sleep. Very rarely does such a young opener outshine the headliner but, last night, this almost certainly was the case. 

At around ten twenty five, the place was packed and ready to see the new “buzz” band, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Though their sound is full of chaotic noise, it comes across rather crisp and rehearsed. The volume, which both Sarah and I feared at first, was toned down as the young band tore through nearly the entirety of their debut album. Three songs in, they did a wonderful rendition of “Come Saturday” and then “This Love Is Fucking Real”. One thing I noted to myself as I listened was that the vocals needed to be mixed better, as the harmonies that the singers (Kip Berman and Peggy Wang-East) were trying to create came across  very muddled, buried under layers of distortion and bass. But, overall, the set was short and sweet (lasting about thirty five minutes) and sent everyone home happy having seen the newly anointed “next big thing” (thanks to Pitchfork and its “Best New Music” column). 

All I know is that we are definitely going back to Kung Fu Necktie. That place was the dopest spot I’ve been to in quite some time.