Japandroids and DIIV played Webster Hall (night 1 pics)

photos by Dan Bracaglia, words by Andrew Sacher

Japandroids at Webster Hall – 12/4/12

Japandroids have been on tour for a while now in support of their great 2012 LP, Celebration Rock, and after coming to NYC for a sold out two-night run at Bowery Ballroom and MHOW over the summer, the band returned this week and made the move up to a two-night run at Webster Hall (12/4-5), the first night of which was sold out. Five months, almost four times the amount of audience members, and multiple top 10 rankings in major music press year-end lists later, not a thing has changed about Japandroids on stage. They still play like it’s the last night of their lives, and continue to make positive interactions with the crowd, who respond by going nuts all night. The usual raised fists and push pits were there, and at the encouragement of Brian King, a bunch of people stage dived (something that didn’t happen at Music Hall in Williamsburg back in June). Though at one point the crowd started a “Let’s Go Rangers!” chant to which Brian responded with, “Why are you trying to antagonize me? I’m here to make community,” and after tons of cheers and a few guitar riffs later, he added “By the way, Rangers suck, Canucks rule!” and went directly into the next song. The set included all of Celebration Rock, most of Post-Nothing, and the non-album single, “Art Czars,” which they’ve been playing on this run.

The show began with an opening set from DIIV, who brought their usual sense of guitar line-y indie pop, atypical attire, and bashing around on stage. They delivered a solid set of material from their debut album, Oshin, which dropped this year, and has also earned itself a fair amount of year-end list spots. The crowd was tamer for DIIV than I’ve seen them in the past, but there was still enough head bopping from people up in front that it looked like they went over pretty well.

More pictures from night 1 (night 2 coming soon) below.

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DIIV

Japandroids