Styrofoam is the real deal
- Styrofoam
- Electronica pop act from Belgium plays the Knitting Factory, NYC, with opening acts Hey, Will Power and Alias.
I’m here to report on my first indie concert in New York City thanks to my friend Emily, who invited me along to see Styrofoam after discovering we had similar tastes in music.
Emily was all about Styrofoam. I had not heard of them, so I sampled some of their tunes online. My initial reaction was that they sounded like the Postal Service — 1/3 pop, 1/3 electronica, 1/3 chill.
Actually, more and more these bands are getting harder to classify. It’s probably a good thing, but I hate it. I wish before the show they would say something like, “Hi, we’re so-and-so. The type of music we play is called alt-emo-country-electronica-pop-punk-funk. Hit it.” That would make it a lot easier for us reviewers.
The night opened with Hey, Will Power, without a doubt the most entertaining of the acts, but not for the reasons you might expect.
Will, the lead singer (think George McFly from “Back to the Future”), had two dancers bopping around behind him — Justin and Erin — in cheesy outfits doing even cheesier choreography, which of course was intentional. Erin was a sweet dancer with great energy and even had a face cute enough to make me focus on her more than Will. Meanwhile, Justin had a perm and was lucky if he was 16 — he even had the bad teenage mustache to help support my theory.
Besides Will and the two dancers, there was some dude in the background on a computer. At first I thought he was just checking his email because he wasn’t grooving or even moving for that matter. But he was there for the entire performance, so I’m guessing he was doing something musical back there. Or maybe he just had a lot of email to catch up on.
Hey, Will Power’s dance music was catchy and infectious, but I was convinced that Will was lip-synching, which sort of ruined the vibe for me. I might be wrong. He may have just had, like Ashlee Simpson puts it, “background vocals.” Still, he lost points.
Then came the next act, and get this, he was a rapper originally from Maine — MC Lobster. I’m kidding… about his name, not about being a rapper from Maine. I didn’t think they had rap up in Maine yet.
His real name was Alias and he actually didn’t start rapping until his fourth or fifth song. The first half of his act consisted of making some phat beats from his mixing board, which is not as exciting in concert as it might sound. He was basically bent over pushing buttons for a half hour. He might have been trying to fix the air conditioning… I don’t know.
His rapping was just like his mixing: good, but nothing really new. He was one of those speed rappers, and it got pretty old fast, even though he definitely had lyrical skills. His beats always stood out, however.
Then came Styrofoam. It got off to a curious start — I wasn’t sure if their first song was indeed a song or a sound check. It was one of those “let’s test out every piece of equipment” things that kept building up and building up. The lead singer kept moving around on stage touching every little button or knob. Like the dude in the first act, Styrofoam’s lead singer kept going back to his Power Book. But he wouldn’t stay their long, so he probably wasn’t checking his email. Maybe he was getting updates on the Rangers score.
Styrofoam, an act from Belgium, didn’t really take off until their second song kicked in. I must say it rocked and set the tone for the night. The crowd was hooked by the roaring strums of the guitars and the pure orgy of sounds. The music carried a perfect balance from then on, never getting too heavy or too mellow.
One of their strongest songs of the set was “Couches in Alleys,” which was the tune I had sampled online to get a sense of what they were all about. It was even better live.
Styrofoam had something the previous acts didn’t have — actual instruments like drums and guitars along with the aide of computer sounds. However, the band didn’t exactly wow anyone with their on-stage presence. The only guy who showed any emotion was the keyboardist, who was banging his head and smiling like he was the drummer in Winger or something. Then again, there wasn’t much room up on the stage. While the Knitting Factory had a unique and intimate feel, even with a bar to the right and a balcony offering a birds-eye view, it didn’t allow for much besides the musicians and their instruments.
Which is probably why everyone just brings their Power Book.
November 24th, 2005 at 9:08 am
never even heard of them until this review. checked them out on itunes and they really do sound like the postal service. ‘couches and alleys’ is a pretty good song.
December 8th, 2005 at 9:29 pm
Styrofoam is actually one person—Arne. He brought some friends with instruments along with him while on tour (who did an excellent job I might add). I must disagree on your statement—“My initial reaction was that they sounded like the Postal Service”…(what was your latter reaction?) Perhaps ‘Couches & Alleys’ sounds like them as Ben Gibbard did the vocals on the track; however apart from this song Styrofoam sounds like…well, Styrofoam. Upon listening to his newest album ‘Nothing’s Lost’ you may come to a different conclusion.
Nonetheless, to those of you who haven’t heard of or had a listen to the musical musings of Arne van Petegem, do so & make up your own minds. www.morrmusic.com or www.myspace.com/styrofoam
Love & Lollies, ama
December 8th, 2005 at 9:58 pm
Yeah, I realize that the music of Styrofoam is essentially created by one guy, much like the way The Streets is essentially Mike Skinner, but Arne did play live with a band, so that’s how I classified them/him.
And you’re right, being compared to just Postal Service doesn’t do Styrofoam’s sound justice, but it was still my initial reaction.