Music Snitch

After an elongated spell of waiting between bands, 45 minutes actually, The Mary Onettes finally took the stage at The Studio at Webster Hall. After the bands’ opening song, “Puzzles”, concluded,  lead singer Philip Ekstrom pleaded to the crowd, “hope it sounded ok anyway,” as he was apparently experiencing some technical difficulties. A few songs into the set list, which was comprised of both newer and older material (Void, God Knows I Had a Plan), and The Mary Onettes started having a little fun, however, they might have been the only ones. There were a few hollow claps and whistles through out the show but other than that, zero enthusiasm, no requests, no real attentiveness for a band who came a long way. Even in between songs, bassist Henrik Ekstrom tried to get some kind of response from the crowd with a, “so how about them jankees,” but nothing, just crickets.

The atmosphere was so perplexing that I could barely pay attention to the music. It’s as if this group of people were handed free pity tickets while walking home from work and decided to pop in to the venue and stand motionless in front of a Swedish band playing buoyant new wave tunes. Apparently their Brooklyn show at Union Hall a couple days prior was a bit shaky and plagued with glitches, so perhaps people bailed on this show.

Their concluding number, “Under the Guillotine”, sounded pretty crisp and intense…even with the club music from the other room rattling the walls and providing additional, impromptu bass kicks.

Take A Listen: Dare from The Mary Onettes

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Download: Dare (Right click on link and select “Save Target As” in IE or “Save Link As” in Firefox)