I love small venues. I especially love small venues when they surprise you with a great opening band that is just as excited to be a part of the audience as they are to play. But if the Mercury Lounge was packed that night, it was all for the Mystery Jets, because a) they’re awesome, and b) their first show scheduled the night before was canceled due to visa issues. As a foreigner myself, I have great sympathy for frustrations caused by visas/customs/homeland-security shit. But when 9 p.m. rolled around and the lady working the door mentioned that they had yet to land, I started to side with the anxious individuals complaining about how they had to wake up for work the next day.
Lucky for me, that wasn’t the case. I had found a spot up front by the entrance to the stage and was happy to be out and in good company (w/ my cousin who had just moved to NY) when I saw a cute guy sitting on the steps air-drumming away. Due perhaps, to a mixture of our induced proximity and my dinner of beer, rum, and coke (afraid tickets would sell out, I had arrived at seven only to find out that the Mercury Lounge has not yet invested in a stamping system and instead has a bizarre no-exit policy) I gathered my cunning wit and said to him: “Let me guess. You play the drums?”
His answer: the accordion, actually.
That pretty much shut me up. But two seconds later he was up on stage, drumming (aha!) for Dominant Legs. (He plays the accordion for another band, so he afterwards explained.)
This was Dominant Legs’ first show in New York City, and while the drummer, Rene Solomon, wore plaid and backup vocalist/keyboardist, Hannah Hunt, wore those old school really high waisted jeans and a black belly shirt, the DLs are too fresh to be clustered into the hipster category. With three individuals behind three instruments – lead singer Ryan Lynch plays the guitar – DL’s pop music has a welcomed purity to its sound and sophistication in its restraint. Their songs are catchy but they are also soothing, not least because of Hunt’s seraphic “ohhs” and “ahhs”… actually they're just “ahhs”, offered as harmony. And the steady beats of their songs left each member vibrating in his own aura. While Dominant Legs’ music will not impress you with a capacity to blow you away, it’s their ability to spark that fuzzy feeling of familiarity that will win you over.
For a little sun on this cold, cold day check out "Young at Love and Life"
Lucky for me, that wasn’t the case. I had found a spot up front by the entrance to the stage and was happy to be out and in good company (w/ my cousin who had just moved to NY) when I saw a cute guy sitting on the steps air-drumming away. Due perhaps, to a mixture of our induced proximity and my dinner of beer, rum, and coke (afraid tickets would sell out, I had arrived at seven only to find out that the Mercury Lounge has not yet invested in a stamping system and instead has a bizarre no-exit policy) I gathered my cunning wit and said to him: “Let me guess. You play the drums?”
His answer: the accordion, actually.
That pretty much shut me up. But two seconds later he was up on stage, drumming (aha!) for Dominant Legs. (He plays the accordion for another band, so he afterwards explained.)
This was Dominant Legs’ first show in New York City, and while the drummer, Rene Solomon, wore plaid and backup vocalist/keyboardist, Hannah Hunt, wore those old school really high waisted jeans and a black belly shirt, the DLs are too fresh to be clustered into the hipster category. With three individuals behind three instruments – lead singer Ryan Lynch plays the guitar – DL’s pop music has a welcomed purity to its sound and sophistication in its restraint. Their songs are catchy but they are also soothing, not least because of Hunt’s seraphic “ohhs” and “ahhs”… actually they're just “ahhs”, offered as harmony. And the steady beats of their songs left each member vibrating in his own aura. While Dominant Legs’ music will not impress you with a capacity to blow you away, it’s their ability to spark that fuzzy feeling of familiarity that will win you over.
For a little sun on this cold, cold day check out "Young at Love and Life"
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