The Show That Was No Show

Last Thursday night Roman said to me "no show this time". Whatever! First of all I don't understand why a Room show should be better without the show and second of all there is no way Roman can do a show without a show. I mean, he tried hard but clearly couldn't go through with it. See for yourselves, he basically screwed up right before the end, hilarious:

That's the new song 'Asteroid', unfortunately performed without any drums because "the drums go straight upstairs" as Michael put it. Thank you Michael for having us there despite the trouble with the neighbours!


C.Gibbs performing before Room was much less trouble for the neighbours. But his songs are serious trouble for me; I have to watch out not to start to cry when I hear them! This time I recorded 'You Got It Blue', which is my new favorite song:

By the way, the guy on the pedal steel guitar is Philip Sterk. That instrument looks extremely complex to me. Clearly not the kind of instrument I could ever master. But I love to hear it. It's so American somehow...

For the people in Switzerland reading this (yes, we know you are out there!), remember that C.Gibbs is touring Switzerland with Privateman (i.e. Helsinki on April 20).

Go here to see more pics of that night.

We Want More!

Officially it was a record release party for Boston based E.R. (a.k.a. Eldridge Rodriguez). But somehow it ended up as a home match for Room. But hey, how about a joint project called 'Emergency Room'? E.R.'s lead singer Eldridge has a special singing technique, sometimes sounding a little croaky but other times sounding a little like David Bowie, nice! And making music holding the earphone of an iPod to your guitar strings is definitely very innovative. Check out their new record called 'This Conspiracy Against Us'.

Then Room pulled off the full show culminating in Roman once again almost killing himself on stage! Check it out here, be patient though and watch until the end:


Some people were really a little worried that Roman would not make it out of the drums anymore. But I can assure you he is up and running again, phew! Even though everybody from the band seemed to be extremely exhausted after this show. They put all their energy in it as can be seen on this picture:



And how cool was that pattern of black and white of the Bernd - Roman duo:



If you have not had the chance to see Room play lately you should check them out soon; they have this new cover of 'Frozen' that is just amazing! I am a Madonna fan, but somehow never liked her 'Rays of Light' record (I guess too much spirituality). However, that rock cover is off the hook!

More photos also of E.R. and Martin Bisi - who presented some new very poetic lyrics - in my very personal photo diary!

Room, Yes, But Not Enough Space!

What a blast we had at East River Bar. It was packed with bike messengers, single strap bags, hooded sweaters, young confident people and stacks of attitude. Turned out the three bands were strangely compatible with the wild crowd. But I let Lars from the fantastic Moss Empire tell the story. You can find his original post on their MySpace page. Just one more thing: Hold on to that drummer you got there, Compass - he not only comes from Liverpool, he is the perfect mix of Ringo and Dave Grohl.

Moss Empire Rule the East River Bar

Compass tore into their set with adorable furor and style

Table Hopping, Kick Drum Jumping Room

Here's what Lars writes:

Monster Track Bike Party Mayhem

When you see a bunch of fixed gear bikes outside the bar you know it's gonna get interesting.

So our pal Roman from Room hooked us up with this gig at the East River Bar Saturday night. And we're thinking, 10 of our best friends in a room. And it's all shady -- we have to bring the drums, the PA is a rumor, and this place is literally under the bridge, so there's a troll-like "grind your bones up for my bread" vibe to the place. And we park the van and it won't start.

So we roll in at 8:00 PM and the find out there's been a massive international bike messenger race that day and for better or worse, we are going to be the entertainment. The challenge: there's half an inch of water-beer on the floor and 200 hopped up messengers on the "stage." Long story short: We commandeer some space with the bartender's help, literally clear folks out, establish a perimeter, set up, and 45 minutes behind schedule we finally get it together and Compass goes on. But are the messengers/alley cats going to be surly? 'Cause this party, make no mistake, belongs to THEM. Is this going to be the Blues Brother playing at a C+W bar? Bill and I nervously try to remember the words to "Rawhide."

But the show must go on. And the bike messenger/racers are hopped up on bike messenger adrenaline and beer after beer after beer, and Compass gets them warm with their lovely low atmo-bass thing.

So we're second, and it's like setting up for practice, only with a crowd surrounding us on all sides, racers dancing to the jukebox, no monitors, and cables everywhere to trip on. There is nothing more punk rock than this. After 15 hurried minutes setting up we just start to play. Total strangers two feet away, into it. This girl standing dead in front of Nancy rocking out and egging her on. When we get to Codependent and a mosh pit erupts in a fixed-gear frenzy in front of the jukebox (our first mosh pit). And THEN the intensity mounts and the volume rises and the speed increases and we're just a rocking island in a sea of insane adrenaline junkies who ride without brakes (and 20 bemused friends). And it is beautiful. By the time we get to "Nature" it feels a little, just maybe, like X instead of "Retarded X."

And it gets even more beautiful. Room steps up, vamping under the end of the prize ceremony. Bernd is twanging, Jean is sweating in his Argyle Sweater, Martial is pounding, Jan is holding it together, and Roman is flying all over the room. Kick drum leaps, flying down the stairs, climbing the PA, looking like the bastard issue of David Bowie and Dean Wareham.

And then we're done and loaded out and the messengers are raving and we turn the key and the van starts right up. We want us some more of that.

--Lars

falcon works

Hi everybody! I am Anita, Roman's new assistant blogger. See, I take so many movies and pics and he is just sick of downloading them and linking them up, so he asked me to do it myself. I hope you don't mind. I am not a journalist and I am a foreigner, so please excuse my very subjective way of writing and my not so flawless English. However, I would appreciate it if you told me in a nice way if I repeat the same errors in English over and over again, I am trying to improve it. But hey, maybe you just like my Swiss accent? That is fine too. So let's get to the point:

I had so much fun at the benefit party for Falconworks, so thanks a lot, Genevieve! For everybody, who couldn't make it, please check out their homepage. They are doing amazing work!

Whoever was there and loved it as much as I did and for whoever wasn't there - you can watch a movie of 'Melomane' performing 'Unfriendly Skies' right here:



On Sunday I went to see 'Room' and 'C.Gibbs' at the 'Cakeshop'. The first time I saw Christian Gibbs live and it definitively met my high expectations. I was thrilled! Again, I was taking movies like crazy and the best one of C.Gibbs is on youtube now. There is not much to see, except Christian Bongers bobbing head, but the sound is great! And I think you get a feel of how it was like to be there:



You can see pics of both the benefit and the gigs at the Cakeshop in my photodiary for February.

We will tell you soon what is up this weekend, so stay tuned. I think this is enough for now. God, I get all these error messages with this blogger, I first have to figure out how this works!

Morricone, Chrysler, Melomane, Morex... What More Can You Ask For?

This is why we love living in New York: The weekend is opened by Ennio Morricone, who performs "Voci del silenzio" in the General Assembly hall of the United Nations with a 200 piece orchestra - we'll be telling you who was the good, who the bad and who the ugly.

Then, on Saturday, we highly recommend you a double bill: Go to Club Midway to the Benefit Show "Hand picked" to support Falconworks' Teen Playwriting Programm "Off the hook", where Daniel Carlson, Coney Island Swan Dive and Leslie Mendelson will perform. Take the short trip from Midway to Tonic to check out the homecoming show of the fantastic Dorit Chrysler and mingle with celebrities, then head back up to Midway to see one of the rare Melomane shows as highlight of the Falconworks benefit.

No rest for the wicked ones on Sunday! After soccer, don't settle in your seats, drinking beer and eating pizza, watching the Superbowl. No, you gotta come out to The Cake Shop on 152 Ludlow Street to witness this years incarnation of Room, graciously early at 8.30, followed by C. Gibbs at 9.30, so that you can be safely tucked under by midnight.

Cause also the next week won't be boring: We'd like to direct your attentin to the first ever show of Melorex, the combination of Melomane and Morex Optimo that is about to tour France. Marek of East River Bar has opened a slot on Thursday night, Feb 8th, for all us poor New Yorkers who can't fly to France to witness the birth of a new New York Uebergroup.

It's A Hit!

Remember the Cohen movie "O, Brother Were Art Thou", when Clooney and the gang sang them beautiful tunes? Imagine that kind of folk sound with the biggest hits of the Eighties - Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, Madonna, but also Wire, The Clash and Billy Idol: You've got the Greatest Hits, New York's new secret. Their first show ever at Bar on A was a rousing success, we enjoyed it immensely and promise to learn a lot of new tracks for the next show. The evening was opened by Anton Sword who set a somber tone with the ballads first, then turned into optimistic pop. Reduced Room - Burnt Finger is in Italy - now seem to be able to hold the volume under control and presented a nice bunch of new songs, amongst them Architect, which you can hear below, thanx to Anita, whom you hear talking to Pierre in the beginning. Ich liebe den Raum, Mann!

Pierre's Performance Party Picks

Just one of more then twenty performances on Taaffe Place last Saturday: Quentin Jennings with C. Gibbs and Gerald Menke bringing the folk to the folks. As Pierre writes, there were "new heights of entertainment reached, including Powerpoint, avant-garde shadow puppetry, many many wonderful songs in many languages, songs by beautiful couples, original poetry, raccoons, trumpetry, cello-accompanied stories about Mars, and live Graduate thespian action". A true sense of a large scene coming together, enjoying each others art rather than criticizing or just being among the spectators. You know I like it like that. Am I a hippy now or just getting old? For a sense of beloning, go to Anitas Photopage and check out Love and Hate NYC Blog. Pierre and Denise videotaped most of it, so we hope to see some of the hilarious performances - such as Heather's power point performance of how to perform, the Swiss choclate dance or Frau Bauers first ever public appearance on stage - on YouTube pretty soon! Plus, Pierre already promised a next one!

Vote for Heather to perform in Jay Leno's Late show!

Come hear Sword, Room and The Greatest Hits

Three weeks already into the new year already and not a single Room show? Impossible, since we want to play a show every month this year and then release a live album entitled "Year Around." Blahblah. But come and see Anton Sword and Red Room at Bar on A this Thursday night - it will be all the more memorable, since you get to see The Greatest Hits debut.

Red Room are what we are when the Burnt Finger isn't with us. It's also a reference to Kubricks "The Shining" and shine we hope we will, while wishing Burnt all the best in U-rope. Tip the bartender and try to be nice. We start around nine, I guess. It's free, so no guarantee.

The Greatest Hits are a new fully acoustic combo, meaning they do not need any plugs or use any electrical power nor amplification, still they tackle defty New Wave songs, icluding faves by Depeche Mode or Madonna. Come singalong with members of NYC's Botanica, Melomane, Room and The Roman Games.

Anton Sword is best known for his work with British crooner JC. But he also writes anthems of existential struggle, entombed narcissism, doomed romanticism and ironic paradox (No I didn't have to type this, i cut and paste it. I use these words, xcept ironic.) Check him out at his MySpace page. Some have said his tunes suggest Radiohead's Thom Yorke, David Bowie and Brian Eno singing around Burt Bacharach's piano in an upper west side Manhattan apartment, with Portishead drifting in from across the alley.