The last two nights I've seen Longcut, Hard-Fi, Nightmare of You, and Nine Black Alps...twice. And I took a lot of pictures. Nine Black Alps are so great. It's more or less the same set every time, but I'd go see them again tomorrow if I could. Their album gets a stateside release next month and they should be back in March. Make a note to check them out if you haven't yet. Longcut I wasn't super impressed with...had their moments, but the whole bit where the singer runs back behind the drum kit halfway through each song was sorta distracting. Interesting I suppose, but too strange to really work. Nightmare of You were fun. It's totally unoffensive music, which I know sounds like such a backhanded compliment, but I really do like them. It's just music that was made to be in the background of a 'Date My Mom' promo on MTV. I listen to their album every once in a while. It's grown on me quite a bit. Finally, Hard-Fi were solid, but didn't knock me out like they did at Mercury over the summer. I had some issues with them, as I explain over at Gothamist.
Lots of pictures after the jump...
Nine Black Alps (Mercury Lounge) 
Longcut
Nine Black Alps (Bowery Ballroom) 
Nightmare of You
Hard-Fi
My thoughts:
Nine Black Alps were great, they always manage to put on a great show.
Nightmare of You were dull, loved themselves a little too much (and I couldn't see why).
Hard-Fi were abysmal. Better than they were at the Mercury Lounge, but I was still quite embarrased for them. Their album is fine, catchy poppy indie tunes, pitty they are useless live.
Posted by: An Anonymouse | January 18, 2006 at 11:09 AM
Great pics.
Posted by: Glenn | January 18, 2006 at 11:28 AM
hard-fi made my ears bleed. true story.
Posted by: bob | January 18, 2006 at 11:38 AM
i was all over the place with this band. i would have described them as a mix of the clash and the bravery but i like the backstreet boys more. sometimes i was really into the music, thought they were working the crowd well and wanted to dance and other times i felt like it was just bad poppy MTV crap and i felt dirty about being there... weird night. nine black alps was awesome as always though.
Posted by: j | January 18, 2006 at 12:39 PM
I liked Nine Black Alps set, however I was deathly bored during Nightmare of You, with the exception of their first song (Days go by oh so slow) I thought the rest was rubbish. Hard-Fi wasn't baad...but they weren't as lively as I would have hoped and I was turned off by the lack of engagement with the audience - a little eye contact comes a long way sometimes...
Posted by: Steph | January 19, 2006 at 09:11 AM
did you notice Asia Argento up in the balcony?
Posted by: SHADOW | January 19, 2006 at 12:32 PM