LIARS with TV ON THE RADIO and YEAH YEAH YEAHS Warsaw, Brooklyn, New York February 24th, 2004 Words by Cameron Cook Photos by Bidita Choudhury [GALLERY] Angus Andrew should be dead. Not that I hate the man, or think his band's new album, They Were Wrong So We Drowned, isn't a death-disco work of genius or anything. The thing is, during the firecracker opening for Liars' new single, "There's Always Room on the Broom", Angus decided to jump onto drummer Julian Gross' kick drum, slipped, and fell headfirst into a monitor. Very, very hard. As the beat-pulverizing song chugged on, Angus got to his feet, wobbled a little, then wailed out the lyrics of the chorus, totally on cue, without guitarist Aaron Hemphill ever even blinking an eye. This is the beauty of a live Liars performance. They are a band that, physically as well as musically, can let their lead singer bash his head into a drum monitor within the first few bars of their brand new single, and carry on mere seconds later like it ain't shit. Unfortunately, a large number of concert-goers that night were attending to see Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who were guest-appearing to support the Liars' new record (for those who seriously have no clue, lead YYY singer Karen O has been dating Andrew for quite a while). I hate to nudge the spotlight away from Liars, but YYYs were stellar, playing a set of almost all new songs ("Down Boy", "Sealings" and "Cheap Hearts" to name a few), and Karen O strutting the stage while swigging from a bottle of champagne. O is the perfect rock star: she's Chan Marshall without the downers, Courtney Love without the uppers. She's simultaneously breathtakingly gorgeous and painfully hideous. By performing together tonight, she and Andrews solidified their places as current King and Queen of the Scene. That said, TV on the Radio are more than mere Brooklyn scene lackeys: although their performance wasn't the best I've seen them at, it was no the less amazing. Their infamous sampler "suitcase" was missing (I hear it was damaged on a plane to Scandinavia), and they traded their signature fuzzy bass for Jesus and Mary Chain-esque guitar shreds, but the songs held up the same. New singles like "The Wrong Way" and "Dreams" fell away from their original arrangements before they were even released to the public on the band's debut album, Desperate Youths, Blood Thirsty Babes (proof that TVOTR will never cease to innovate live). The first time I saw TVOTR live, I heard a man in the audience whisper to his friend: "I've been told they never play a song the same way twice." After witnessing them perform for the fourth time, I truly believe him. The Brooklyn scene isn't over, or jaded, or dead, or obsolete, or anything in between. As long as bands such as Liars, TVOTR and YYY continue to fuck the rules, it'll will be as vibrant as the opening guitar riff of "Maps". © 2004 snapandclap.org. get your hands off our content, motherfucker!