Mercury Lounge – New York, NY
Live Review: 10/29/08
***
Halfway through their set, Apollo Sunshine’s Jesse Gallagher (vocals, bass, keyboard) laments over the microphone at the lack of hecklers in the crowd. “You suck!” someone kindly offers. “Ok, asshole ,” he responds mockingly .

Obviously, nothing could be further from the truth. The members of Apollo Sunshine—Gallagher, Sam Cohen (vocals, guitar, pedal steel) and Jeremy Black (drums)—possess expert musicianship that surpasses that of most rock bands playing at smaller venues like this one. They deliver their eclectic brand of psychedelic rock—pretty, jangling, funky—with captivating polish. It’s this kind of talent a band would need to take on the formidable challenge of performing an entire set of, say, Jimi Hendrix covers—which is exactly what they did.

But first come a solid set of songs from their recently released third album, Shall Noise Upon . On “Singing To The Earth,” Gallagher’s steady, folksy voice balances Cohen’s graceful pedal steel work. Maracas and tom drums fill out a lively, upbeat version of “Honestly” (“You can salsa to this one!”). And the set is cloaked in extensive use of hypnotic, Hendrixian distortion pedal and feedback—the latter of which serves almost as an instrument on its own. After a short intermission, the band members reappear onstage dressed as Hendrix himself, each man’s wig meticulously matched to the color of his beard. They play dizzyingly authentic, riff-filled versions of a couple songs, including a drawn-out “Are You Experienced?” Gallagher admirably channels Hendrix’s voice, only breaking character slightly during “Foxy Lady” when the lyric comes to “I’m comin’ to get ya!” where, amusingly, he sounds somewhat sheepish.

At some point in the first set, someone requests “Katonah,” a song off their first album by the same name. After a few moments of fumbling, they stop. They can’t remember how to play it.
“We suck,” Gallagher says.
“We don’t suck,” Cohen says. “It’s not like, ‘we’re 29 , we can’t riff anymore!’”
Evidently not.

Photo credits: Mike Jones

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For upcoming tourdates, visit www.myspace.com/apollosunshine or www.apollosunshine.com

Look out for an EM interview with Apollo Sunshine this week.

via Lydia Fong, 10 November 2008 1:46am | |