The Hives @ Brooklyn Steel - Brooklyn
October 30th, 2023: The Hives, Olivia Jean @ Brooklyn Steel - Brooklyn, NY
The Hives - Photos Courtesy of: Edwina Hay
The Hives blessed fans with another dozen new songs on The Death of Randy Fitzimmons back on August 11th and kicked off their tour with a sold-out show at Brooklyn Steel in Brooklyn, NY the eve before Halloween (Monday, October 30, 2023). Who is Randy Fitzsimmons? He may or may not exist, but has been credited as discovering and managing The Hives as well as being an unofficial sixth member of the band. With their first new record in over a decade, Fitzsimmons is now dead…or perhaps he is still alive?
The long-running garage rock band recently announced on social media that there would be prizes awarded for costumes for their Brooklyn show plus Washington, D.C. on Halloween. Naturally, there were people dressed up like The Hives, including one person up front who referenced frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist accidentally hitting himself in the face with a microphone during their performance at a festival.
Another garage rock act, Olivia Jean, and her band were selected to open the tour. The four members took the stage promptly at 8 PM and played a solid and fun set for 40 minutes. Olivia Jean and her band seemed truly excited to be on tour with The Hives and engaging with their fans at the tour opening show.
The Hives came on stage about 9:15 PM after Frédéric Chopin’s “Marche Funèbre” played over the speakers and frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist jokingly and accurately declaring, “It is good to have us back!” before the group kicked off their set with the first track of Randy Fitzsimmons, “Bogus Operandi,” and subsequently launching into “Main Offender,” “Walk Idiot Walk,” and “Rigor Mortis Radio.” Almqvist announced that the new album made him feel like a proud parent before the band performed the fifth song from the aforementioned record, “Stick Up.”
All evening, Pelle’s banter was witty and sharp: “I looked at the setlist and you people love this song. You’ve loved it for 20 years!” before he introduced guitarist (and his brother) Nicholas Arson to begin “Hate To Say I Told You So,” from their 2000 sophomore album Veni, Vidi Vicious. “Yeah, we’ve been practicing!” he later noted when expressing how good they sounded. When he announced the last song of their set, people loudly expressed their disappointment and he immediately quipped, “Do we have a customer complaint?” The Hives selected “Countdown to Shutdown,” another single from the new album, as the final song of their set before they left the stage, only to return to us a few moments later. We received a two-song encore of “Come On!” (from 2012’s Lex Hives) and “Tick Tick Boom,” (from The Black and White Album). Before the Swedish gents sent us off into the night, we heard Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does It Better” over the house speakers as the band took a bow to a cheering audience.
I caught my first performance from the Swedish quintet back in 2001 and saw them a few months ago in May at a smaller venue. I can always count on The Hives to deliver an energetic and fun performance and I’m so grateful I got to see them twice in a year after a long hiatus. They’re scheduled to return to NYC again in 2024 to open for Foo Fighters at CitiField and I’m very glad I got to see them in a medium-sized venue before they bring The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons to the home of The New York Mets.
Olivia Jean
Viagra Boys @ Brooklyn Steel - Brooklyn
October 18th 2022: Viagra Boys, shame @ Brooklyn Steel - Brooklyn, NY
Viagra Boys - Photos and Review Courtesy of: Edwina Hay
shame, the UK post-punk band, joined forces with Viagra Boys, of Stockholm, Sweden for a nearly month-long tour of the United States and ended their expedition in Brooklyn, NY on Tuesday, October 18, 2022.
Kills Birds, the Los Angeles based band that opened all shows on the tour went on at 7:30 PM. The band fronted by Nina Ljeti performed songs from their second record, Married, and ended their set with “Worthy Girl” which has an opening lyric of “this flower kills birds,” and Ljetl shared that it is how the band got their name before the song began.
Viagra Boys, who I caught earlier this year in Brooklyn, are touring in support of their newest album, Cave World, which was released in July on Year 001. Their setlist seemed to reflect a good portion of that record such as playing “Ain’t No Thief,” “Troglodyte,” and “Punk Rock Loser,” The group’s singer, Sebastian Murphy, dedicated the final track of that album, “Return to Monke” to their bassist, Benjamin Vallé, who passed away about a year ago said he loved New York and a fan who recently died but had friends in the audience. Their set also included older songs like “Ain’t Nice,” “Worms,” “Sports,” and “Shrimp Shack” with someone in the audience throwing both of their shoes at the stage during that penultimate song.
The post-punk quintet shame began the final set of the night at 9:45 PM. Their second studio album called Drunk Tank Pink was released by Dead Oceans in January 2021. Singer Charlie Steen seemed to waste no time engaging with fans by leaping into the crowd during their first song, “Dust on Trial.” All members were filled with energy, especially bassist Josh Finerty, who constantly ran back and forth on stage while playing his instrument. Before the final song of the night was played, “Snowday,” Steen revealed shame will hopefully be back next year with a brand new album.
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Girl Talk @ Brooklyn Steel - Brooklyn
April 28th 2022: Girl Talk with Hugh Augustine @ Brooklyn Steel - Brooklyn
Girl Talk in Brooklyn - Photos Courtesy of Edwina Hay
At the end of March, the producer known as Girl Talk (a.k.a. Gregg Gillis) began his first tour in nine years, which is currently wrapping up on the east coast. On Thursday, April 28th, the tour came to Brooklyn Steel for a sold-out show.
The night began at 8:30 PM with a set from Los Angeles rapper, Hugh Augustine. Augustine revealed to the audience it was his first time in New York and was extremely appreciative to finally perform in New York City, where his genre was born in the Bronx nearly fifty years ago. He was a fitting choice to go on before Girl Talk, at one point instructing and leading the audience to dance in a two-step before starting one of his songs.
Girl Talk’s performances have been known to be sweaty, dance-filled affairs and that has not changed in the last ten years. Some audience members were escorted on stage to surround Gillis while he played his music which samples songs from a variety of genres. Throughout the night, we heard the vocals of many contemporary rap acts such as Vince Staples, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, City Girls, Nicki Minaj, Three 6 Mafia, Future, and A$AP Ferg over the music by Elastica, Pixies, Nirvana, Elvis Costello, Green Day, Hole, and others. In addition to dancing, the audience sang along loudly to songs by Kelly Clarkson (“Since You’ve Been Gone”), Gayle (“abcdefu”), and Lit (“My Own Worst Enemy”). Throughout the set, there were balloons, confetti, water, toilet paper, and other items that fell onto people from above.
Hugh Augustine
The Fiery Furnaces & Fred Armisen @ Brooklyn Steel - Brooklyn, NY
Photos courtesy of Edwina Hay | November 13th 2021
Fred Armisen:
In May 2011, The Fiery Furnaces performed during the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, Spain, and the group featuring siblings Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger would go on hiatus shortly after that performance. Fast forward to ten years later, they would reform and conduct their first live set in a decade at the Pitchfork Music Festival in September 2021 and go on a brief tour which would take the band to Brooklyn, NY to Brooklyn Steel, Chicago IL’s Thalia Hall, and Los Angeles, CA to El Rey Theatre in mid-November.
Their concert at Brooklyn Steel on Saturday, November 13th began with comedian/musician Fred Armisen starting at 8 PM. He did jokes involving music such as not knowing how to dance or move when listening to songs in unusual time signatures (Slint’s “Nosferatu Man” was used as an example of this), or illustrating the history of punk via the drums starting in the 1970s through 2000s, and demonstrating how it seems like the drummer who played on Diana Ross’ “I’m Coming Out” didn’t know the song he was playing on.
The Fiery Furnaces, now expanded to a six-piece band, took the stage at Brooklyn Steel at 9 PM. Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger were joined by bassist Brian Betancourt, keyboardist Emily Lee, and drummers Noah Hecht and Cameron Wisch. The group performed songs spanning their catalog and executed them in different arrangements than their records. Eleanor thanked the audience for joining them in person for the show while understanding that not everyone who wanted to attend could due to the pandemic. Some fans traveled from out of state to attend the show and they were appreciative of them being there. The evening ended with “Chris Michaels” from their 2004 album Blueberry Boat, with Eleanor throwing her setlist into the crowd after the song was over.
Fiery Furnaces:
Refused with Racetraitor and Youth Code @ Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn, NY
Photos and review courtesy of Stephanie Augello | February 22 2020
On Saturday, February 22nd, Swedish hardcore punk legends Refused stopped off at New York’s Brooklyn Steel to give fans a hard-hitting performance of both classic and new songs. Frontman Dennis Lyxzen danced around the stage throughout the whole set, conjuring the spirit of forefathers Mick Jagger and James Brown. Rather Be Dead, Deadly Rhythm, New Noise, and Coup d’etat comprised the list of older songs that many crowd goers had grown up listening to, while songs such as Blood Red and Malfire gave everyone a taste of the shape of the band to come.
Opening that night were Racetraitor and Youth Code. Formed in Chicago in 1998, Racetraitor includes Fallout Boy Drummer Andy Hurley. They reformed in 2016, and remain a well-loved political force on the scene.
Industrial duo Youth Code followed up, generating electricity through the crowd as vocalist Sarah Taylor screamed, snarled, and flipped hair to the bands angsty beats. The Brooklyn stop was only the second night of tour. Refused will be on the road in both North America and Europe through August.
Hot Chip with Holy Fuck, Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn, NY
Photos & review courtesy of Edwina Hay | September 3, 2019
On Tuesday, September 3, 2019, Hot Chip kicked off their North American tour in support of their newest record, A Bath Full of Ecstasy, in Brooklyn, NY. The show, which took place the day after Labor Day, began their three night stand at Brooklyn Steel. Holy Fuck, of Toronto, began the show at 8:30PM and performed a new song which featured vocals by Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor. Hot Chip had many in the audience dancing until the very end of their set. Although the band planned on ending the night with second encore (a cover of “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys), it sadly didn’t happen because they exceeded the venue’s 11PM curfew.
Hot Chip
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Franz Ferdinand with Bodega @ Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn NY
Photos courtesy of Edwina Hay | April 16 2018
Franz Ferdinand currently on tour in support of their newest record, Always Ascending. The band played two sold out shows at Brooklyn's Brooklyn Steel. This was the second night (they also played Sunday, April 15th). This was the sixth and final show for the Brooklyn band Bodega with Franz Ferdinand.
