HPX Day#4: Friday Oct 21st 2011 - STAN

 

The Palace, The Khyber, Reflections
HPX 2011

Review & Photos by Stan Beland

“In other news, this song will turn you into a God Damn sexual Tyrannosaurus.”

And so began Friday night, day 4, of this year’s pop explosion. A mostly empty venue with 4 grown ass men wearing spandex and laying down the most amazing electro-funk you’ve ever heard. Wearing masks, pylons, helmets, jet packs and various other accouterments, Tupperware Remix Party not only looked amazingly weird, they also played a fantastically odd brand of music. Not quite rock, not quite techno, but a happy medium of the two, punctuated by madman rumblings and keytar solos. I don’t usually hype a band’s upcoming shows, but if you don’t go see TWRP on Nov. 5th for their going away party, you’re a fool and a charlatan.


For the remainder of the evening, I show hopped with my friend Melanie, picking up performances by bands we’d barely heard of or seen before.

After missing out on entrance to see Titus Andronicus at Tribeca (VIP passes for next year, Santa), we settled on Reflections for Tongan Death Grip. Fast paced, break neck punk rock is pretty much all you can say about these guys. The three piece featured perennial Halifax rock star Myles Deck on drums. From there, in my humble opinion, Deck goes his best work; technical yet reckless, Deck’s drumming style has always impressed me. With Tongan Death Grip, Deck and the other members of the band embraced the speed and ferocity that punk is known for. Also in true speed demon fashion, the set lasted for maybe 20 hot, sweaty minutes.


Next, we made our way to the Khyber, knowing that we’d only be able to stay for a few minutes. We caught the first 3 or 4 songs by Lake Names, which reminded us both of 50s and 60s pop. An oddity, kind of, amongst the danciness and punk rockedness of the evening, Lakes Names played straightforward post-war pop, that reminded Mel and I of the “Enchantment under the Sea” themed dance from Back to the Future. Sadly, Michael J. Fox didn’t liven things up with the solo for Johnny B. Good. This is probably a good thing. The Khyber houses hipsters. Hipsters hate rock and roll.



After hour brief foray into the heart of hipsterdom, we went back to the Palace (how’s THAT for variety?), if for no other reason then to get some dancebeats back in our lives. We arrived just as Kidstreet was taking to the stage. Made up of 3 siblings, some keyboards and a drum set, Kidstreet laid down the funk. Their energy was pretty infectious, and Cliff, in particular, seemed to be having a ton of fun onstage. Alternatively clapping, jumping and dancing, Cliff seemed to be very alive in the moment. Sister Edna who performed the majority of the vocals was having a good time too, but Cliff just seems euphoric. On top of the fun-to-watch live show, Kidstreet was actually a legitimately cool band, dropping some big bass riffs, sing/yell out choruses and general joy.


Up last, Twin Shadow from New York. I want to preface this by the fact that I really liked Twin Shadow’s vibe, musicianship and general “We’re rockstars” look and feel, I really, really did.

However.
Twin Shadow’s obvious crib of 80’s new wave style was…well, obvious. They were fun and chill to watch, their songs were great, and the crowd was into it. Even with all that going for them I couldn’t help but think that Twin Shadow started as a band in 1984, perfected their sound, invented time travel and have now installed themselves in modern day New York, trying to figure out a way to be relevant again. Down to the clothes (big hats, snakeskin looking shoes, retro tank tops) Twin Shadow was a vision of the height of 80’s music. Most telling fact about Twin Shadow? My mom thought they were pretty cool. My mom, dudes. My mom. And she likes Roxette.



Our night on Friday was proof that you CAN show hop at HPX. It takes planning and compromise, but it can happen. The eclecticism and throwbacks of the evening was an interesting experience. I don’t think we heard a single lick of music that could be defined as “new” or “of the times,” but it didn’t matter. HPX delivered on it’s promise of a wide array of music delivered by weirdos from around the world.