Scene and Heard

Vivian Girls at Silent Barn + Dan Friel at Dead Herring

Photos by Nate Dorr » Q: With so many shows going on simultaneously in Brooklyn all the time, how can anyone pick just one?
A: Go to two.

Text by Nate Dorr
Posted on August 07, 2008

Following a sticky police run-in some months back, Silent Barn has moved to an earlier show schedule. Dead Herring starts late and runs later. Together, it's not unreasonable to catch significant parts of two bills for the price of a single Bowery ticket. In my case, I started out with the Silent Barn's "Loft Pop" bill of hazy retro-garage headlined by twin ascending favorites (and tourmates) Vivian Girls and Crystal Stilts. Openers were to be the Beets and Ca-Use Co-Motion, but the latter couldn't make it, leaving that "perfect match" to be booked by E4E1 sometime in the near future (we hope). Instead, we got a solid replacement in the rustic psych of the Woods, who, incidentally, seem to be sounding even better than the Meneguar they share most of their members with.

As soon as the Vivians finished their set (one of their first with new drummer Ali), I jumped an L train back into Brooklyn and found myself at Dead Herring House in time for both Dan Friel (Parts & Labor's custom-built-synth-pedal-noise-apparatus-player) to weave a spectrum of churning noise-pop and spectral hums in celebration of his new solo album Ghost Town, and for a blazing spew of molten guitar and percussive tremor from the one-time-only supergroup of Mick Barr (Ocrilim), Tim Dahl (Child Abuse), and Kevin Shea (Talibam!).