MOG

The TING TINGS @ Bowery Ballroom Wed 8.16.08

hehe I cruised to their latest show in NYC this wednesday and was caught off guard.Why?

First off, it should have come to no surprise that they have cultivated a huge following in America at this point (having made the UK Number #1 charts with their pop-friendly riffs). But I didn't know it would be packed to the wire with fans - mostly male- chanting every word, hanging on Katie White's every voval quiver. I also thought the show would be much more lackluster than it was. Why?

REASON 1) When I first heard their album- I literally thought of the derivation of "pop" - the pulsing, jumping beat you think of- drums popping in your ear- vocals shouted cheer-leader style. Pop - pop- like the little excited tingle you get when you stick a whole deflated bag of popcorn in the microwave and through the miracle of radioactivity- and heat- those little kernels burst into flowers of corn- a smell prinkling your nose. Yes - all those analogies and more confined themselves in the 10 tracks of "We Started Nothing." And that's not necessarily a good thing cause popcorn never satiates.

REASON 2: Theirs is a brand of easy infectious pop; however, that is not typically my cup of tea. I tend to prefer more organic brands. Not to be a pessimistic asshole but it's far too caffeine-injected, simplistic and ferociously exuberant to appeal to my beatnik i-eat-ramen-far-too-often-to-save-money-on-canvases boho indie tastes (hell - I just called Laura Marling an indie darling two days ago and hers is a breed of paint-the-town-black doleful balladry.....) The Ting Tings' music is like Britney Spears for kids who prefer black skinny jeans. Something about its unabashed commercialism and smiley-face cheerleading gave me a bit of a headache. (All the more frustrating, Katie sounds like Uffie except I prefer Uffie's bitching and cussing....)

REASON 3) I saw the Ting Tings this spring at SXSW and they sucked. Like, miserably. It was hard to watch such hype sink down the drain. It was one of the last nights of SXSW after they had played their umpteenth show at a party thrown by Plus 1. They came on at 2 am or something and they were tired. But I didn't really care. I've never seen a more pathetic display of rock. Plus, me and about 3 other stranglers had waited till 2 am to see them and they played three songs. Katie looked like her legs were going to buckle under the weight of her guitar and Jules De Martino could barely keep a beat. I said "figures. it was all hype.'

And THEN.

They came on stage full flare under red and blue lights this wednesday. Man have they grown. Or maybe they just put it on for this one show on their tour. I don't know. I don't really care. All I know is they provided some kick-ass vavoom for a wednesday hump-day night- and the crowd went wild for it.

Granted their songs did not morph into something deep. But even when Katie was belting "Don't be a traffic light" over and over and over and over....it seeemed like she meant it. Her voice quaked; she clutched her mike; she clenched her eyes; she sweat; she outstretched her hands; she bowed her head; she could have gotten an oscar for effort. And we all collapsed under her spell. If the song was a battle cry, she had a hundred soldiers at her feet. Like a modern Helen of Troy, her voice launched about 50 beer refills.

So I beat my head. And giggled at the 6 foot tall bloke who kept screaming he loved her. (yeah it was the guy in the pict above. with the goofy smile on his face.).

And forgot to think about anything. Forgot about everything. Let myself get brainwashed by the beat.

The next day, I woke up with "It's not my name" rattling in my head. At least that's a sign of a good show, no?