No Kids (with Dirty Projectors) @ Music Hall of Williamsburg [4.9.08]

Whereas Brooklyn hometown hipsters the Dirty Projectors are like the cool kids you remember from high school, cutting class and smoking in the courtyard, Vancouver trio No Kids would probably be holed up in a classroom at a meeting of the French club. And while I cannot say for sure, I imagine that if they were to somehow find themselves together in a prototypical John Hughes high school situation, Dave Longstreth, the frontman of the Dirty Projectors, just may have been tempted to trip No Kids’ singer Nick Krgovich in the hallway. Therefore the pairing of the two bands at the Music Hall of Williamsburg proved to be an interesting dichotomy.

After a polite soundcheck, No Kids seem almost reluctant to interrupt the audience chatter with their set. But this does not discount their fantastic R n’ B laced pop songs – within the first few moments of their opening number “For Halloween,” I remember why those kids in French club always seemed like they might secretly be pretty hip behind their textbooks.

Though a friend scoffed when I described their songs as wonderfully dorky R. Kelly inspired slow jams, Krgovichs rendition of “Bluster In the Air” cemented my thesis, with Krgovich belting out the decidedly unsmooth lyrics, “I can feel a bluster in the air/Baby take me home/You know I don’t like it out here when it’s like this, No/Well if you want to go/I won’t let nothing hold me,” turning the word “go” into a multi-syllable croon.

Krgovich’s timid intro to “The Beaches All Closed” (“I said this was our last song right?”) gave no indication of the power of this absolute jam (yes, I said jam) that encouraged a large group of men in 9-to-5 button down shirts to dance up a storm. Although the jittery drums and soulful chorus got us moving, this song is begging to be remixed into something even more dancefloor-ready. Are you listening Cousin Cole?

Sure enough, after No Kids set, I overhear a woman in the bathroom offer the obligitory Talking Heads comparison. Of course, I must admit I had been thinking the same thing. Though musically, there is really no overlap between the Talking Heads and No Kids, there is a similar presentation and attitude. (And Krgovich does possess a nerdy chic and lanky frame not unlike a young David Byrne.)

As the night goes on, Dirty Projectors run through their set with a sense of ease that makes the whole concept of stage fright seem foreign. They are showmen (and women) and seem about as confident on stage as anyone can be. Could No Kids benefit from some of their tourmates' stage presence and charisma? Sure. But with music as distinctive as theirs, I’ll be in the crowd. I always did secretly admire those nerds in the French club.


For Comparison:


No Kids' Krgovich


Dirty Projectors' Longstreth


[Black and white photos by Adam Schatz. Press photo by Sarah Cass.]