Nightmare of You
@ The Knitting Factory
Hollywood, CA. July 11, 2009
Before the show Steph was lucky enough to grab an
interview with Brandon and Mike.
You can check it out by clicking [here]. You can also check it out on our Addicted to Shows podcast.
In anticipation of their latest release Infomaniac on August 4th, Nightmare of You rocked L.A. residents with a show on the Main Stage of the Knitting Factory in Hollywood this month.
The New York City-based group was joined by opening acts Magic, Brian Bonz and Plushgun. Magic warmed up the audience first with their funky guitar riffs and powerful female vocalist. The band even came complete with conga drums, a rare sight for music that is not strictly reggae. Brian Bonz brought a great mellow vibe to the show, using only his incredible voice and an acoustic guitar. Bonz also got some laughs out of the crowd with his quirky sense of humor and self-deprecating jokes, alluding to physical similarities between he and Carrot Top and Louie Anderson. Plushgun rounded out the opening acts with a hyped-up and energetic set of synthesizer-driven tunes and glow sticks thrown out to the audience. The band made it pretty much impossible for any member of the audience not to move (even if it was just their feet).
Band members Brandon Reilly (vocals/guitar), Joseph McCaffrey (guitar/vocals), Michael Fleischmann (drums) and Brandon Meyer (bass) played a set of 12 songs, almost all of which the devoted audience sung along to. Brian Bonz even joined the group on stage for several of the songs to contribute his tambourine skills.
The band started the set with “Experimental Bed” off of Infomaniac. They continued with a mix of songs from Infomaniac and their previous releases, playing “Thumbelina” after zealous crowd members yelled their requests for it.
A more unique aspect of the show was the interludes the band would play before each song. These snippets of sound came sans vocals, sounded very different than the song that would follow, and cannot be found on any of their albums (but they’ve become a signature at many of the band’s shows).
McCaffrey exerted every ounce of energy in his body into his guitar playing and never swayed from song 1 to song 12. Fleischmann, new to the group, showed off his superior drum skills while bouncing up and down energetically, often donning a huge and contagious smile on his face. Meyer smiled along with Fleischmann, plucking the bass ever-so-coolly. And Reilly, atypical of most lead singers, made the occasional witty banter remark between songs (even playing along with a very drunk audience member who was heckling the band) but for the most part, remained focused on the songs at hand. To match Nightmare of You’s haunting, eerie and even twisted lyrics, Reilly would even look up at the ceiling in such a parallel way when he sung/played, it literally gave me goose bumps.
Their final song gave tribute to the powerhouse band these guys are. The flashing lights of the venue mixed with their instruments and movement all over the stage (Reilly paired up with Meyer and McCaffrey with Bonz and Fleischmann at the drum stand) was a musical coup d’etat, overtaking the audience and ending the show on an unforgettable note.
Now I could sit here and spout off a laundry list of artists that Nightmare of You sounds like but a) that would take forever and b) none of them would be a fair comparison because this band has a sound that is all their own. Their set consisted of songs with funk guitar, reggae beats, pure rock, soft vocals, harder vocals and everything in between.
Nightmare of You has set out on a tour all over the US, set to continue into August so if you want to witness their brilliancy firsthand, I suggest you make it out to a show. You will not be disappointed.
You can find more photos of all the bands on our Myspace album [here].
Edison Glass had already finished half their set but I was immediately entranced by their style. The beats weren’t too dance-y, but made me shake my hips. Melodies were obvious but intriguing. The vocals were sweet and melodic but not heavy and were peppered with the occasional gang singing and brash sing-shouting. One of my favorites of the set was a simple ballad “When all we have is taken” because of the honesty and sincerity the dragging vocals and heavy beats created. I was definitely sad that I had missed a good chunk of their set and will be buying their new LP Time is Fiction pronto.
Up next was Paper Rival who was even more intriguing.
