Pianos Rock Monday

UPDATE (10/6/05) - One Louder has got excellent Brakes photos at his Flickr site. More here at Death of a Party as well.

Last night:
Caught a fine night of bands at Pianos last night - got there around 9pm for the last few songs by Aeroplane Pageant, a five-man outfit anchored by three guitarists. And those guitarists really built up a sound. Damn, those last few songs were thrilling Built to Spill-like crescendos. Great drummer too.

Strikes Again! pulverized again, with singer John Van Atta captivating the crowd with his spinning guitar thrashing antics. During one number ("Can't Stop Now"?), he completely flipped off the stage.

The Octagon doesn't sound at all like The Jam (whatever Time Out NY writes). I love the interchanging lead vocals between Zack and Johnny, and the guitars were smokin' as well on songs like "Fox Patrol" and others.

The Pianos room filled up for the US debut of Brakes, a fast, tight new band emerging from British Sea Power. It was their only US show for the foreseeable future. I didn't know much about 'em, but heard a song this summer. They rocked and swang in appropriate measures. Eamon's singing voice is cool. Paul Banks from Interpol was in the house at one point, coming off another successful NYC show and wearing that ubiquitous black wooly cap. I stayed for half the set - left sometime after their Camper Van Beethovencover. I loved the short opening number - hell, the whole LP is short songs. Buy the CD here.