Photo: WENN.com
“It’s been about one year since our first gig in New York City… and it’s really exciting to be here. If you haven’t danced yet, I think it’s about time, don’t you?” announces lead singer Jonathan Pierce halfway through tonight’s show; and it’s a sentence that seems to sum up exactly where The Drums are at right now. In the past 12 months, they’ve gone from playing their first live show in New York, to writing and recording their much-lauded EP ‘Summertime’ in Florida, through being tipped as New York’s next stratospheric band, to releasing their self-titled debut album the day previous to tonight’s gig.
And the quartet is excited to be here: you can tell from the relentless energy with which guitarist Jacob Graham leaps around the stage jangling a tambourine during new track ‘Best Friend’ – a jingly summer tune that starts with the darkly humorous opening line “You were my best friend/but then you died” – and the vigour with which he sashays around his left-hand patch of the stage all night, almost ballroom dancing with his guitar. You can tell from the power of Jonathan’s romantic – almost operatic at times – pop croons as he belts out ‘I Felt So Stupid’, ‘Skippin’ Town’ and ‘Saddest Summer’ - and from the way he struts around the stage in his Ian Curtis-esque manner. And you can tell from the relentless on-note deliveries of guitarist Adam Kessler and sticksman Connor Hanwick, that bring The Drums’ brand of ideal 50s-cum-60s-cum-80s pop to life this evening.
As Pierce acknowledges however, The Drums have only been playing as a live band for a year, and consequently despite delivering an album which will no doubt soundtrack summer 2010, as a live proposition, for now they lack the back-catalogue of tunes that get a crowd going full-throttle. Until the two-track encore, the closest the four-piece gets to mass indoor party participation is ‘Saddest Summer’ – which awakens some dancing shoes – and new track ‘I Need Fun In My Life’, which gets only its second ever live airing, but delivers with its ‘fun, fun, fun’ refrain.
Saving the infectious ‘Let’s Go Surfing’ and the beautiful ‘Down By The Water’ for last, Pierce – dressed in a T-shirt emblazoned with the number ‘10’ – and co. ensure The Drums go out with a bang this evening. And Gigwise is left in no doubt that once they’ve had time to tour some more, grow as a group and return with more hallmark tracks, this is one band that will undoubtedly one day leave an audience feeling more fulfilled.
