Sal P slips in and out of madness
Photos/Text by Andrew Parks
James Murphy is usually a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, but self-titled‘s never seen the LCD Soundsystem frontman/DFA don smile quite like he did throughout Liquid Liquid‘s special Santos Party House set last night. Perched over Santos’ mixing desk with a hint of delirium in his eyes, Murphy looked like an overgrown kid who just got the keys to his parents’ car. Or in this case, the knobs and sliders that control the subtleties in such Lower East Side classics as “Optimo,” “Bell Head,” and the song that made “White Lines” an instant anti-coke anthem, “Cavern.”
All and all, Liquid Liquid played an nimble and nasty set for about 60 minutes or so. Halfway through, Salvatore Principato confirmed what we already assumed–that the band wouldn’t be fulfilling its second set commitments because “we’re so hot right now, we figured we’d just keep on playing.” It’s kinda hard to complain, $15 ticket price and all, when a band this rusty performs like such a well-oiled machine, from Principato’s well-preserved no-wave howls to Dennis Young’s tightly-weaved percussion patterns (the guy made a marimba seem like the most punk rock instrument around). One particular highlight: the machine gun drums and foaming-at-the-mouth mania of “Push.”
As a publicist friend of self-titled said after the show, “They are still one of the best ‘New York’ bands around.” He followed that with a series of words that’d make your mom blush and the request for someone to book these guys for New Year’s Eve this year. Us, we’re happy this happened at all and are content with leaving things the way they went tonight. Now, for a couple more photos …
