October 22nd, 2007

Live: Fenway Showcase (Foreign Islands & MGMT) at Crash Mansion (10/19/07)

By Charlie Tatum

For anyone who has never been to the Bowery’s Crash Mansion, it is a close substitute for a basement made for house parties, and the bands that performed there on Friday night reflected this quality.

Foreign Islands
Brooklyn-based dance-punk outfit Foreign Islands, like many other bands these days, have discovered the best formula to make the local indie kids step away from the wall and get to dancin’. Their guitar-heavy party tracks vacillate between the synthesized noises that elicit some dance movements and slower, unexpected vocal-driven breakdowns. The band is seemed to be concerned with effectively turning any given space into a frenzy of moving body parts. But there was room for vocal improvement, as the lead singer tended to whine throughout the entirety of their set. And after a few minutes, their line-up became an indistinguishable collection of songs that seemed as if the same song was being repeated. This stems from the fact that they used the same structure for ever track, which began with solitary beats that lead to vocal chants and guitar riffs. However, there was no lack of energy and the band certainly did a wonderful job at getting the crowd to shake their stuff. Foreign Islands left the impression that they are good for a night out on the town, but not something to turn to if you are looking for innovative music.

To hear some tunes from Foreign Islands, check out their official website here.

MGMT

Wesleyan University alums MGMT are in the midst of a nationwide tour with Of Montreal, having played with them at Roseland Ballroom on October 13th. But in this basement venue, MGMT thrived while performing for the congregation of people by playing their smooth, keyboard-driven tunes. The music was found common ground between songs that invoke dancing and those which are meant to be watched while standing still. Occasionally, the band would fall into the trap of playing elongated songs that became boring after the first few minutes. But when the tracks became focused on the keyboard (such as fan favorite “Time to Pretend”), MGMT received the best response from the crowd and reminded them why they were at the show in the first place. MGMT is definitely a band to watch, especially if you are looking for a band to  help wind down a long night of dancing.

Check out MGMT’s MySpace for more. Keep scrolling for some more pix.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 22nd, 2007 at 3:43 pm and is filed under Arts, Music, CMJ. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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