Nobunny and Girls at Bowery Ballroom

Opening act Papa included both the guitarist and drummer from Girls, a band who apparently joined on the tour due to obvious levels of association. The most impressive moment of Papas set was when the drummer (whose name I can't even find on the internet because no one really writes about drummers apparently) jumped out from behind his drum kit to high five fans standing in the front row. It would just make me feel bad to dislike an opening act after such a warm and welcome break from blankly staring at the stage waiting for the other acts to play. All I remember from them is a blandly pop song with lyrics referring to  "all my homies" which somehow didn't fit the cute boys from the suburbs stage persona. Competant, yet barely memorable.

Garage rockers Nobunny had a sizeable contingent of gung-ho fans, with several "fuck yeah!" encouragements from the crowd. Nobunny has been known to bring on a hilariously grimy, rock and roll sweat party, and with songs like "Blow Dumb" , "(Do the) Fuck Yourself", and "Your Mouth" I was fully anticipating at least one display of nudity, oral sex implication, or a mic stuffed in the crotch of lead singer Justin Champlin's undies, any of which Nobunny's live shows have been known to involve. Playing hits from their album First Blood, which has been listed in the top five albums of 2010 by many garage rock fans, received reactions anywhere from "the worst music I have ever seen" to "the best show of my life" on Twitter that night. Yes Champlin (a.k.a. Nobunny) was playing in his underwear from which a set of handcuffs dangled, in a too small leather jacket, signature bunny mask and nothing else. But this show involved non of the crowd surfing, hanging from walls, beer sloshing party scene that leaves you sticky and bruised in unexplainable places, as I was expecting. Some guy tweeted, "I can smell Nobunny from 35 feet away" and although I know for a fact that the bunny mask worn by Champlin for every show is washed "oh about every three or four tours" I wouldn't really go that far. The Bowery was perhaps more stifling than what Nobunny is capable of live, in terms of a balls out rock n' roll show. I blame it on the venue style; a raised stage is no comparison to a more crowd participatory warehouse space or house party when it comes to the bluesy punk, raw experience of a band like Nobunny live.