Thursday, April 14, 2011

Live Review - TV on the Radio @ Ed Sullivan

It was an interesting week in music at the Ed Sullivan theater, Foo Fighters took over on Tuesday for Letterman's birthday and to celebrate their album release, but another one of the Dave fave's returned for a special concert - Brooklyn's art rockers, TV on the Radio. The same day the Foo's released Wasting Light, TV on the Radio released their latest disc, Nine Types of Light and in a week that saw them celebrate in Brooklyn as well as a packed gig at Radio City, they capped it off by doing an intimate performance on a grand scale. The ambitious five piece art/funk/rock/punk act were joined by a trombonist and for 40 minutes transported the audience and theater into another planet.
Opening with their latest single, "Young Liars" and cranking into the REM "It's the End of the World" inspired "Red Dress," the momentum and energy were skyrocketed through the roof. Singer Thunde Adebimpe slithers and moves around on stage like a soulful snake and the band is his charmer, multi-instrumentalist and the band's in house producer (not to mention, latest Jane's Addiction bassist) David Sitek, who had a wind chime hang off his guitar would provide the cosmic noises and sounds that would alter the shape of the band's already diverse sound. Guitarist Kip Malone is a forced to be reckoned with, playing his guitar more like a drum and pounding in the strings while the rhythm section made up of Gerard Smith and Jaleel Bunton provided a heart thumping sound that would have every arm in the air and every foot dancing. Playing a majority of songs off their latest record and their previous, 2008's brilliant Dear Science, TV on the Radio would close their small but mighty set with the pulse pounding party starter (or in their case, ender) "Wolf Like Me." It was a show that would cap off an amazing week for this band and much like a caged wild lion, they are ready to roar across the world, be warned, TV on the Radio are on the prowl and are out for you to have a great time.