PoBPaH

Dianca Potts

The Pains of Being The Official Pains of Being Pure At Heart Blog.

As Sunday afternoon slipped into Sunday night, KungFu Necktie got comfortably crammed with show-goers from black wall to black wall. After a dreamy assemblage of ’45s spun by DJ Htshell, Philly’s Brown Recluse Sings took the stage, striking chords and belting out numbers from their forthcoming full length release. Beginning with “Mystifying Oracle,” featured on their Black Sunday EP, the Brown Recluse Sings’ set grabbed the audience’s attention and kept it captive with six or so songs, including the Lazy Bones” and “the Calm Before the Storm.” Rendered sweaty from the collective flash of cameras and KFN’s white hot stage lights, the six-piece pop sensation packed up their gear and joined the crowd, receiving compliments from strangers and chatting with old friends.

The Depreciation Guild later filled the on-stage vacancy left by night’s opening act, projecting pixilated colors onto the wall behind their backs. Starting off with the frenetically explosive “Sky Ghosts,” the Depreciation Guild’s shoegaze orchestration kept their crowd of 20-somethings quiet and assuredly amazed. With fluxuating hues and abstracted four sided shapes, the Guild’s “Sky Ghosts” and “Darklooming” played out like a digitized daydream full of reverb 8-bit madness and crashing waves of guitar riffs. Appreciative of their audience’s attentiveness, the Depreciation Guild’s set came to a close with “Dream About Me,” leading to applause and a swift and semi-hurried exit by the evening’s second act.

Replacing the empty stage, the Pains of Being Pure At Heart’s Kip Berman conducted a discreet sound check and set up of the band’s equipment, while keyboardist Peggy Wang sipped a drink offstage. Within a tolerable count of minutes, NYC’s latest twee-pop sensation began “Doing All the Things” without a formal introduction or a shred of hesitation. Wang, sporting a hot pink scrunchie on her right wrist and smiling wide, swayed back and forth while Berman thrashed his white and brown guitar. Both sporting plaid, drummer Kurt Feldman and bassist Alex Naidus were equally engulfed in the moment, cheerfully rocking out while keeping the song’s pulse pumping as the crowd watched with wide and greedy eyes. A former R5 show-goer and Philadelphia area native, Berman took the time in between songs to thank Sean Agnew for all his work and announcing that the Pains of Being Pure of Heart plan to return and play an all ages show.

Extracted from the tracklist of their well-received full length debut, the jangly riffs of “Young Adult Friction” and fetchingly energetic “Come Saturday,” the Pains of Being Pure At Heart shined bright, giving their all during each songs flawless performance while obviously having the time of their lives. Repurposing nuances from the 1980s underground, the remarkably polished “Tenure Itch” washed over show-goers feeling intuitively relevant and familiar, like the Smiths or Joy Division, while simultaneously sounding modern, exciting, fun, and new. The band’s current single and prime suspect for everyone’s favorite, “Everything With You,” was almost magic, inciting their giddy and grateful audience to feverishly bob their heads and sway throughout the song’s duration. Ending with their namesake song, the Pains of Being Pure At Heart graciously thanked the crowd for coming out and stood for a moment on the checkered and tiny stage as the audience cheered, clapped, and begged for one or two more songs. Politely insisting the set was over, indie-pop’s latest buzzworthy band left the stage, merging then disappearing into a crowd of newfound fans.

Set List

• Doing All the Things
• This Heart Is Fucking Right
• Young Adult Friction
• Come Saturday
• Tenure Itch
• Everything with You
• Kurt Cobain’s Cardigan
• Pains of Being Pure At Heart

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Show. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.