Tokyo Police Club: Secret Show at the Mercury Lounge
By Ashley Withers In a small bar on Houston Street in New York City, Tokyo Police Club took the stage under the assumed show name "Mark Knight's Tropic Zone." The secret show became public to the visitors of Brooklyn Vegan after the website more than alluded to it in an article announcing TPC's upcoming tour dates. TPC officially leaked the show on Friday, Sept. 5. The skinny stall of a bar, known as the Mercury Lounge, was merely a waiting room for the show. Brown velvet curtains converted glass doors, hiding the main room. TPC took the stage shortly after 11. A shoestring line of thrift-store-perusing, blog-stalking, ten-dollar-a-show bohemians polluted the air with cigarette smoke and secrets. Several people on line chatted about the exposed headliners. The people on line were part of a subculture. They were esotericists with a secret that didn’t matter to those walking the surrounding streets. "Sorry to all of you who thought you were coming to see Mark Knight," said guitarist Josh Hook, smiling. The band included all but two songs off of their latest album, “Elephant Shell” (2008), performing the lineup from a set list playfully titled, "Shhhhhhhhhhh....." The four traded a Sunday night off from tour to play the venue, which, as the lead singer noted, was the location of the Ontario band's first US show. They had the chemistry of old friends. Covert exchanges passed between lead singer Dave Monks and drummer Greg Alsop – Monks nodded his head at Alsop as he introduced the beat. The band’s intimate nature reinforced their independence. You could almost smell the gasoline that fueled this garage band. TPC is a band deep in the veins of the hipster subculture. The fever-frenzied ensemble glistened, backlit by blue, red, and white lights. They jerked about the stage in true Indie fashion: twisting out invisible scuffmarks with their vintage, poor-boy shoes. The lights went black during songs, creating a series of snapshots for the scrapbook of the hipster scene. Keyboardist Graham Wright, was tucked away in his L-shaped, double keyboard set-up. He danced back and forth between the instruments, but he leaned hard on the keyboard that required him to remain in profile onstage. Wright was mostly unremarkable. He influenced only the melody. Any electronic sound effects produced by Wright’s keyboard were overshadowed by the sounds of Hook from stage opposite. Hook often distorted his guitar to do much of what the keyboardist could have. Laser gun and videogame sounds pumped through the amp when Hook danced on the distortion petals, uniquely creating what are generally over processed sounds from bands like Crystal Castles. Alsop had energy stored in the fists that tightly gripped his drumsticks; he made the only instrument that wasn’t plugged-in electric. He looked away from his setup as he played; he kept the beat that the crowd echoed with a series of stiff-handed claps. The songs, "Your English is Good" and "Citizens of Tomorrow," elicited the most energy from both the band and the crowd. The percussion-heavy songs lived in the crowd's heartbeat of time-keeping claps. The entire band is incredibly versatile. Hook and Wright took turns with a tambourine, while Monk, who is also the bassist, unplugged his guitar and switched to an acoustic for the song "The Harrowing Adventures Of." Monks' voice is as clean live as it is on the album. He changes pitch from one word to the next, ascending and descending with ease. His voice is like something winding through a tin gumball machine, but it is comfortably released from the mechanism that might confine it. Dense, hard-shelled, bubblegum pop sounds become sticky in the mouth of Monks. TPC’s show was the kind of secret that the Indie scene likes to keep. It is important that a band like this should never become too famous. Fame would ruin their rapport with the very people who live in the subversive milieu that is “hipster culture” – the people who give them meaning. Like the title of the band’s latest EP, TPC is hiding in the shell of something much larger than they will ever be. The band’s upcoming tour dates are as follows: Sep. 12, 2008 Emo's - Austin, TX Sep. 14, 2008 Monolith Festival - Red Rocks, CO Sep. 16, 2008 Wasted Space - Las Vegas, NV Sep. 17, 2008 Detroit Bar - Costa Mesa Sep. 18, 2008 Henry Fonda Theatre - Los Angeles, CA Sep. 20, 2008 Street Scene - San Diego, CA Sep. 21, 2008 Treasure Island Music Festival - San Francisco, CA Sep. 23, 2008 Tsongas Arena w/ Weezer - Boston, MA Sep. 24, 2008 Madison Square Garden w/ Weezer - New York, NY Sep. 26, 2008 Borgata Casino w/ Weezer - Atlantic City, NJ Sep. 27, 2008 Susquehanna Center w/ Weezer - Philadelphia, PA Sep. 29, 2008 The Palace of Auburn Hills w/ Weezer - Detroit, MI Sep. 30, 2008 Air Canada Center w/ Weezer - Toronto, ON Oct. 02, 2008 All State Arena w/ Weezer - Chicago, IL Oct. 03, 2008 Xcel Arena w/ Weezer - St. Paul, MN Oct. 05, 2008 Broomfield Event Center w/ Weezer - Denver, CO Oct. 07, 2008E Center w/ Weezer - Salt Lake City, UT Oct. 09, 2008 Memorial Coliseum w/ Weezer - Portland, OR Oct. 10, 2008 GM Place w/ Weezer - Vancouver, BC Oct. 11, 2008 Key Arena w/ Weezer - Seattle, WA Oct. 14, 2008 The Forum w/ Weezer - Los Angeles, CA Oct. 18, 2008 Arizona State Fair w/ Weezer - Phoeniz, AZ Oct. 20, 2008 Frank Erwin Center w/ Weezer - Austin, TX Oct. 21, 2008 Nokia Theatre w/ Weezer - Dallas, TX Oct. 23, 2008 Reliant Arena w/ Weezer - Houston, TX Oct. 25, 2008 Gwinnett Arena w/ Weezer - Atlanta, GA Oct. 26, 2008 Voodoo Music Festival - New Orleans, LA |
Mercury Lounge
Once you turn 21, Mercury lounge turns into an awesome venue.
Before 21, it's a bit of a frustration, but worth making the after 21 part better I guess.