Trail of Dead, Marnie Stern, Pterodactyl, Bowery Ballroom and Death By Audio (tonight)

DOWNLOAD: Pterodactyl - Esses (MP3)

Klaus Kinski caught the Bowery show.....

Trail of Dead @ Bowery Ballroom, NYC - Nov 23, 2007 (CRED)

Having hosted Thanksgiving at my apartment for my parents and my brother and, the following day, gone to Macy's to see how awful black friday really is, my frazzled soul was very much ready to get very drunk and see Trail of the Dead at the Bowery Ballroom. Opener Pterodactyl were not pterrible, but watching them play I couldn't seem to get into them. Yet after the show was over, I kept replaying their set back in my mind and now I can't seem to stop listening to the tunes they have available at their myspace. Go figure.

Next up was Marnie Stern who completely disappointed me. She's up for two Plug Awards this year (Best Female Artist of the Year and Best Punk Record of the Year). The whole experience came across as pretty unrehearsed and sloppy (even though it is claimed by Marnie that she practices 3-hours a day). As a result, her reputation as a guitar virtuoso baffles me, as do the Plug nominations. The crowd seemed to dig it though, and the more I search the internet, the more I realize I am very much in the minority with the impression the band left me with.

At 11:30 Trail of Dead came on and reinforced what I thought when I saw them back in October at the Highline. The crowd this time was WAY more into it than when they played Highline. There was tons of sweaty folks, pushing, shoving, tossing their cups about, and really getting into the thunder being delivered from the stage. The room wasn't full at all which meant there were plenty of areas to avoid the mayhem and enjoy the show in relative safety. Regardless of what the haters say, Trail of Dead still kick ass. -Klaus

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Catch Marnie Stern tonight (Nov 29) WITH THE DEATHSET (who definitely rule) @ Death By Audio. Details at the bottom of THIS POST.