Spinnerette @ Bowery Ballroom

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Monday, 29 June 2009 22:51

I was fortunate enough to catch Brody Dalle’s (The Distillers) new band, Spinnerette, at the Bowery Ballroom. Strong opening acts, The Gay Blades, were first. These guys had a kind of a ’90s alternative rock sound mixed with occasional loud, heavy breaks. For a two man band, they impressed me with their fun stage presence and overall energy.

Next came Band of Skulls who, while talented in the modern rock style, were also rather aloof to the audience to the point where I don’t even think they told us who they were. They came out with a Bleach era Kurt Cobain-looking lead singer, a thousand foot tall chick bassist and a Zach Galifianakis-dead ringer drummer, so I didn’t know what to expect. “Kurt” was mostly static throughout the night so his thunder was stolen by the energetic bassist, but even she alone couldn’t save their overall stage presence.

Spinnerette then took the stage with a lackluster start, which at first didn’t seem like a good omen for a relatively new band, but Dalle explained she was fighting a cold. (“You ever get a shot in the ass?! I got a shot in the ass today!”) She went on to explain that the cold was apparently the fault of fellow tour mates Band of Skulls, so maybe they actually can rock and tonight was just an off night.

Even while her movements were stilted, her powerful vocals still never faltered. (what was in that shot and where can I get one?) Towards the middle of the set, though, Dalle gained the energy to round out the performance with more intensity for her new modern rock sound, but still not quite reaching previous Distillers level. Even so, the show was just the shot in the ass I needed.

Words and Photo by Jen Klee