O'death, Nicole Atkins & The Avett Brothers @ Bowery Ballroom 7/14: Banjo String

Early last week, Greg Jamie, of New York rockers O'death, received a phone call. The voice on the other side of the phone introduced himself as John Moore, the booker for the Bowery Ballroom. Moore, recently named one of the most influential people in music by New York magazine, had just seen O'death perform and loved what he saw. He had a last minute opening spot for the Avett Brothers on Friday night and apologizing for the late notice asked Jamie if O'death would be able to play. No apology necessary. Receiving a call from the world famous Bowery Ballroom to play to a sold out crowd on Friday night is every musician's wet dream, of course the band would to it.


The fiddle player couldn't make it Friday night, but no one cared. The core members were there, Greg, Gabe Darling and David Rogers (whom should be voted best looking Indie rocker without his shirt on by the way), and that's all that mattered to the devoted fans who turned out. Friday afternoon, I was casually asked if I would like to go to the show. "HELL YEAH!" I replied. I quickly sent out the blogger bat signal (no joke, we have one, it's on the corner of Orchard and E. Houston, atop the American Apparel store, and beams hot pink in the shape of a fist thrusting a beer cup in the air) for everyone who was going to the show that night to get there early and have a beer with my sister and I in the bar before seeing O'death. Dan Driving the Bus joined us for the beer while Chris Music Snobbery and Amrit Village Indian met us upstairs.


The boys of O'death nervously took the stage at 9:30 and immediately the chaos began. A foot stomping, heart pumping, blackgrass chaos that was so obviously infused with the band's love for the music that you couldn't help but return that love back. A handful of O'death's rabid fans had caught wind of the last minute gig and paid the steep 20 bucks to get in the door. Dressed in their Sunday boots, they chanted, stomped, and screamed requests- it was obvious they were as happy for the band as they were for themselves. About 200 other audience members bobbed their heads with enthusiasm and were introduced to a group that has been hiding in the bluegrass, country parties of NYC.


You can check out O'death's music on their MySpace and at the end of the month, the group will be embarking on an American west coast tour. According to one of their comments, a Norwegian dj just spun 'Adelita' at one of her parties and the crowd went nuts. I love that.


Next up was Nicole Atkins. Earlier in the week, looking for things to see over the weekend, I came across Nicole and listened to her MySpace page. I really liked what I heard. Her voice is very similar to Nellie Mckay's powerful alto.


Friday night, Nicole really shined and kept the crowd endeared to her with coy banter and family shout-outs. Besides her vocal similarities to Nellie McKay, her songs are reminiscent as well but without the political messages. Think also Isobel Campbell, Shiveree and KT Tunstall. The standout track on her MySpace is definitely 'Bleeding diamonds' check it out I beg you. You can download 'Skywriters' here.


And then there were the headliners, The Avett Brothers. I admit it, I've never heard of them. Apparently Chris has seen them twice but their stuff didn't sound at all familiar. For the first hour of their set I was into it (it helped the boys were good looking) but after that I begged Dan's pardon and went to lean against the wall. Eventually I hobbled downstairs and took a seat on the couch by myself. The guys were still playing and we were into hour two. I found a member of O'death and was invited upstairs into the private area where the bands hang out. I was pretty stoked. Never again will I probably get to go back there and though it was cool, I thought it could have been a bit nicer.

Hour two of the Avett marathon waned on and eventually I ventured out again to find Chris in the balcony. Together we watched the final dregs of their act, complete with encore, woman jumping the stage dressed in pink shorts with a thong over them dancing with lead singer Scott and Scott doing a half assed stage dive. Despite an obnoxiously long play time, I liked the group. They are the country version of the Dropkick Murphys. And I REALLY like the Dropkick Murphys.

And thus ended my neverending night at Bowery. Five hours, 7 broken banjo strings, one cookie and endless head bobs later, I was finished.