A couple of years ago, the management at Webster Hall changed from whatever it was, to the same guys that run Mercury Lounge and Bowery Ballroom. Suddenly Webster Hall (also known as “the most famous night club on earth” but I’m not really sure how or when they were granted that designation) started hosting indie gigs. Occasionally, instead of DJ Skribble and Ladies Drink Free (Guys 23+) nights, it’d be The Walkmen or The Faint. I saw Wolf Parade open a Modest Mouse “secret show” in August 2004 there it was my first time at the venue, and though a little chafed by the over-zealous security and actually offended by the drink prices ($5 for water, $9 for beer), I had a great time at the show.
On Thursday, February 2nd at the 2006 Plug Awards, I discovered that not much has changed since that August. Webster Hall is still occasionally hosting great indie gigs, I still think Wolf Parade rocks, and the security and drink prices are still excessive.
Local NYC comedian Aziz Ansari, hosted the evening and broke up the award presentations and music performances with his sardonic stand up and short sketch films he’s been working on with indie music talent. The first band up was Beans and Holy F^ck. First, give Holy F^ck some credit just for having a name that will never show up on MTV. One thing I realized about this performance — it was really refreshing to see hipsters playing hip hop beats lead by a non-white singer. I was worried I was going to get an evening full of scraggly ex-emo kids, but the Plug crew did a great job of mixing up the roster. Oh, and Holy F^ck totally live up to their name.
Chad Vangaalen stepped up and performed some new tracks and then Aziz introduced some members from Longhorn Slim, who proceeded to literally pull the winner for best female artist (NekoCase) out of their ass. Apologies, but you’re going to have to check out the Plug awards page for all of the specific winners here. The next band was Celebration, a Williamsburg band with one of the most explosive live shows I’ve seen in a while. Check the photos for a glimpse of what their energy is like. Hasidic Rapper Matisyahu and C-Rayz Walz creatively beatboxed their way through the nominations for best avant record and some other category. All I remember is C-Rayz rhyming ‘Boredems’ with Delia Gonzalez + Gavin Russom.
Cage was up next with a slamming hip hop set there was a very vocal and supportive contingent of the audience who were very happy to see him, and not very happy to see anyone else. I think one of them called me a douchebag. After a couple more awards, The Perceptionists were up. Their sound was reminiscent of older hip hop, think Run DMC but more political. They had a lot of fun and I’d definitely keep an eye out for a video featuring them, and say… Dungen? Who knows.
The next award’s presenters were Nick Sylvester with Amanda Petrusich and TV on the Radio. I was wondering how Nick was feeling about presenting at an audience-sympathetic (indeed, audience dependent) indie award show, given his status as hipster aristocracy, a title consequent of his associate editorship at Pitchfork. 10 minutes into his recitation of some section (I’m guessing fiction) of the recent New Yorker, his feelings towards the Plug awards were pretty obvious. Plug cut the lights and the mic after people started using pages from their own copies of the New Yorker as fodder to throw at the stage. The video for the best new artist nominations abruptly started running. TV on the Radio were mindful of their time on stage, and quickly proceeded to announce the winners for Best Album and Best Artist of the year.
The National, the band that, according to Aziz, everyone had come to see (including himself) were the closers. Aside from watching their video, I had never really heard The National before, and their live show did impress me, if not for their tight performance and polished sound, but for their adherence to the hipster aesthetic. That was cool and all, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that their entire sound was just the consequence of some record executive “cultivating” (he used air quotes in the board room) their indie sound, because thats “what the kids want to hear” (he didn’t use the air quotes for that one.) It occurred to me later, that the people rocking out (should have used double quotes there) around me would have probably been listening to Springsteen if the mailroom clerk at the PR firm where they work didn’t forward them the yousendit link for the mp3s of The National. Forgive me if I sound a little jaded by the end of this I had spent 5 and a half hours in Webster Hall which is more than enough to kill any indie rock buzz.
Overall, a fun show and good experience, if a little self serving and drawn out but perhaps those issues endemic to all awards shows. And its not like I ever go to any other awards shows … so congratulations Plug, you made at least one bearable.
