Live Review: No Age at Bowery Ballroom [5.6.08]

Duos are unique in their focused vision by default. They're immune to dissolving into a mess of non essential elements or complete overboard unnecessary ensemble. They escape the problems of a huge collaborative project and in No Age's case distill the melody down into the important parts, all filtered through layers of effects...all without losing their punk spirit.
But calling them 'punk' is simplifying, they still allow for the introspective 'Things I did When I Was Dead' or 'Cappo' with it's Brian Wilson soft echo, they are more than just cramming punk into a new category they're allowing some breathing room for the pure sound and experimentation. I didn't expect the full on moshing and stage diving at the Bowery though, it's a testament to the band to work on both levels with an audience keeping their enthusiasm throughout feedback loops and synth.


It's still impressive how the sound conjured up can be so all encompassing with just the two of them blowing out every corner. The vocals were even more buried under the echo, but of course...their recorded material is layers and layers of building guitar distortion and fuzz, this recipe that throws it all together and feels like all possibilities.... every single note all at once. And then a hook will explode out of the haze anchoring the chaos, and they don't waste time drawing it out, the point is made and it's on to the next song. Anything recognizable is fleeting, appearing for a moment blasted into existence.




There is something undeniably about marking a time and place in this sound that could be compared to Pavement's Westing (by musket and sextant), that essential noise, the pure sound is at the heart of the driving rhythms, but it's different, somehow made new again.
What does it take after being unencumbered by rock/punk predecessors, sounding like their ignoring everything previously to come out and evolve on the other side? Where do you go from that groundbreaking first release? No age wasn't created in that vacuum waiting to be discovered... they are definitely in the middle of it, reflecting and appropriating punk along with a Black Dice loop aesthetic which makes for unnatural transitions between songs, from an almost ambient melodic organ loop to 2 minute barrage of noise.



The only trouble is they felt out of their element at the Bowery, removed from the audience trying to fill the half empty stage...they're more at home at a Toddp venue, thriving on the unconventional alternative spaces crowds and atmosphere. This could be a difficult transition to a massive live audience which thanks to immediate acclaim of 'Nouns' is just going to demand these venues in the future.

Along with all of this comes a history of being part of a definitive underground scene in LA and Thanking High Places and Fiasco before them, they left with the same community DIY spirit that they rolled into the Bowery and countless basement loft spaces before them.

[Photos by Sean O'Kane]