Sissy Wish & The Grates @ Pianos in NYC - pics

July 27, 2009

Sissy Wish‘s trip to NYC from Norway was in a bit of disarray at first, but she/they still ended up playing four shows while they were here. The final one was last night (7/25) at Union Hall. The two before that were both on Wednesday at Pianos (7/22). That’s because they played their originally scheduled slot of 7pm, and then were immediately asked by the venue if they wanted to play again that same night at 11:00 (they said yes). The Grates played the same show at 10:00, their 2nd of a three-week residency at the LES club.

I missed The Grates (two weeks in a row so far), but I made it to the early Sissy Wish set. Though I didn’t love about half of the songs they played – pop songs in the vein of Robyn, Lykke Li, and Annie (Tori Amos and Kate Bush get thrown around a lot too), overall they were good, with a few hits to make up for the boring ones.

“I’m not sure why Norway’s Sissy Wish hasn’t gotten more attention in American. Maybe it’s the name, which is off-putting. “What am I doing tonight? Going to see Sissy Wish in concert.” I digress. Unfortunate moniker or not, her music is really appealing, not that far off from what Lykke Li has everyone in such a tizzy. Her latest album, Beauties Never Die (nominated for a Norwegian Grammy), is dancey, but with an organic feel to it that separates it from the glitchy, Frenchy, dirty, chopped-up sounds that are so in fashion with club-fillers.” [Bill Pearis]

Bill wrote that a year ago, and Sissy Wish still haven’t really taken off. Their were about 20 people at Pianos – which isn’t actually that bad for a 7pm set on a Wednesday (especially considering they said the shows were cancelled on their own MySpace page), but that didn’t stop the two-piece band from playing like there was a large audience in front of them.

Front-woman Siri Wålberg, wearing a shirt made of actual cassette tapes (see above and below), jumped around and asked for crowd participation, and she expressed her appreciation for everyone at the show (her ‘new friends’). Her Scandinavian accent and non-mastery of the English language came across as endearing all the time, though her male partner in the band (he was wearing an Atari t-shirt) wasn’t that happy when she announced how happy they were to have not messed up any songs yet (“you shouldn’t have said that”). He played keyboards, guitar, and computer. Strangely, an unrelated band named Sissy Clemens went on right after them (complete coincidence apparently).

How were the Grates? Sissy Wish’s Beauties Never Die is out in the US on 22nd of September. More pictures from the show below…

Sissy Wish