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
Wire @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
Photos and review courtesy of Edwina Hay | March 11 2020
The influential punk band Wire is currently touring the US in support of their 17th album, Mind Hive. The tour brought the English band to Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, NY for two shows on Wednesday, March 11th and Thursday, March 12th. Both nights featured support by a rotating Wire member DJing for the audience at 8PM. On Wednesday night, we were lucky to have Robert Grey (Wire’s drummer) play a music set that I truly wasn’t expecting or experienced before. An early song in his set featured a harpsichord, another featured foghorns (“Song For Our Ancestors” by Steve Miller Band), and another was the familiar “Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major” by Yo-Yo Ma, and we also heard Jimi Hendrix in conversation with Dick Cavett after Hendrix’s performance of the National Anthem.
After he was done DJing, Wire took the stage promptly at 9:15PM with bassist Graham Lewis addressing the crowd with “Thanks for turning out,” and vocalist/guitarist Colin Newman remarking “What strange circumstances we find ourselves in,” alluding to the pandemic of COVID-19 (a.k.a. Coronavirus). There were many people in attendance of their first night in Brooklyn but Coronavirus was on all of our minds and may have explained why it wasn’t a sold out show for the long-running band.
Beginning their set with a song from 1989, “The Offer,” Wire transitioned to “Be Like Them,” the first track on 2020’s Mind Hive. The quartet of Newman, Lewis, Grey, and guitarist Matthew Simms presented songs both old and new, fervently and loudly to an enthusiastic audience. I was absolutely elated when they performed “I Should Have Known Better” the first song from their third record, 154, that features Graham Lewis on vocals, another favorite, “French Film Blurred,” off their second record Chairs Missing, and people near me were very jubilant when “Ex-Lion Tamer” from their debut Pink Flag was performed, dancing and singing along with the band.
Before the show on Wednesday night, Wire announced that they are releasing a vinyl only album for Record Store Day called 10:20 and will tour the US west coast in October. As Coronavirus dominates the news and impacts our lives more and more each day, it felt wonderful to briefly escape it all with such a momentous band and their music for two hours while I washed my hands thoroughly in between sets.
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.
Kate Tempest with Akinyemi @ Elsewhere, Brooklyn, NY
Photos and review courtesy of Edwina Hay | October 1 2019
British multihyphenate Kate Tempest (spoken word artist, rapper, poet, novelist, and playwright) announced four US shows along the west coast and one taking place on the east coast in Brooklyn, NY. The brief tour was done in support of her third record, The Book Of Traps & Lessons.
The sold-out concert in Brooklyn on Tuesday night began with an opening set by a young, energetic local rapper from Queens, Akinyemi. He spent much of his set running across the stage and engaging the audience in call & response. Despite most of the audience not being familiar with his music beforehand, he easily won the room over as it was quite difficult to not enjoy his enthusiasm and sense of humor (after knocking down a microphone stand, he quickly joked to Elsewhere that he valued their equipment).
Kate Tempest took the stage promptly at 10PM, joined by Clare Uchima.
Tempest began her set with songs from her first two albums Everybody Down and Let Them Eat Chaos such as “Marshall Law,” “We Die,” “Europe Is Lost,” “Circles,” and “The Beigeness,” before performing Traps & Lessons in its entirety. All of her songs were delivered with such passion, to be heightened by Uchima’s live synths and mixing plus the impressive lighting design; during “Brown Eyed Man,” the lights went out quickly, only to return to a deep red during a dramatic part of the song while “Circles,” the spotlights on stage naturally went around in circles.
I last saw Tempest perform live in 2015 after the release of her first album, “Everybody Down” at the intimate Mercury Lounge and as I made my way home just before midnight, I couldn’t help but wonder when I’d be able to see her perform these songs again.
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
Holy Fuck
Blaqk Audio with Silent Rival @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
YOB with Voivod @ The Warsaw, Brooklyn, NY
High Waisted @ Brooklyn Bowl, Brooklyn NY
Photos and review by Jen Meller | March 24 2019
High Waisted performed kicking off the Spectrum Concert Series celebrating Women in Music. The night was stacked with performances from Treads, Talay, and The Furies. Jessica Louise Dye, front woman for High Waisted, soaked in energy, gave an electrifying set. This performance followed their twelve show stint at SXSW. High Waisted is a four-piece surf rock group with pop sensibilities.
