- Playing the second of two New York shows, The Big Pink set up at Music Hall of Williamsburg just before 11:30 PM on December 4th. While their Thursday night Manhattan show sold out, the crowd seemed thin at Music Hall, unfortunately setting the stage for what would be a lackluster evening of music.
The London-based electro rock band started strong with strobe lights flickering and a building wall of distortion before breaking into "Too Young to Love," a perfect lead-in to what seemed like was going to be a propulsive set. As the song wound down to a lingering distortion, the newly energized crowd roared over the noise, and the band transitioned right into "Frisk." Unfortunately the music drowned out the vocals, and the energy that had built up in the crowd died down into a bit of confusion.
The ensuing uncertainty began to spotlight the main problem with The Big Pink's live show: this is a band in flux, transitioning between styles and acclimating themselves to a newfound audience. A punk aesthetic of sleeveless tees and skinny jeans was tempered by a darker industrial feeling: all black instruments, continued strobes (and little other stage lighting) and even a headbanging bassist.
The band carried on nonetheless, segueing a distorted bassline right into "At War with the Sun," but the relatively energetic tempo of the song did little to pull the crowd out of the lull into which it had sunk. Luckily, the ensuing drum-pad intro of "Velvet" perked up a good portion of the audience, as they knew they'd soon hear something they came for. In an attempt to continue the momentum, the band moved on to album-opener "Crystal Visions," which, in the recorded version, builds up to a powerful peak. The live payoff missed, however, and it wasn't until two songs later—"Dominos"—that the crowd was fully resuscitated. The poppiest of the band's repertoire, the song turned out to be the show's highlight, as the crowd energy hit its peak for the evening. The moment was short-lived, however, as the band subsequently ended their set at a brisk fifty minutes, sans encore.
Despite technical mastery and what could have been an intriguing visual aesthetic, The Big Pink came across as a band torn between two identities: a harder, darker edge, and a pop sensibility which has thus far gained them most of their fans. Given the high quality of their debut album, one can only hope the band's live performance soon grows into something matching its studio prowess.