The Van Pelt played Coco66 (pics) ++ more shows & a reading
photos by Ryan Muir, words by Black Bubblegum
More than ten years later, The Van Pelt returned to NYC, playing Brooklyn for the first time ever on June 13th as part of a show at Coco66 that the band curated for the Northside Fest.
There were a lot of people in Greenpoint feeling all ’90s Saturday night when The Van Pelt reunited as part of the Northside Festival.
The strangest moment of the night happened during the anthemic closer “The Speeding Train” when a drunken Van Pelt enthusiast-turned-awkward dancer/mosher acted aggressively enough to start a fight in the crowd. All this while we were hearing about the beauty of the puppy’s chin. Singer and occasional Take the Handle contributor Chris Leo quipped that the moshers had missed the Agnostic Front show. It made it feel even more ’90s that there was some sort of debate going on about the ethics of moshing.
Regardless, the show was about as incredible as anyone who followed the band way back when could have asked for. It seemed like the band stuck more often to songs from Sultans of Sentiment, but this song, which served as the encore, comes from their first record Stealing From Our Favorite Thieves. It is called “Magic Fantasy (We Are Provincial).” -[Take The Handle]
The Van Pelt aren’t done with touring yet either. They’ve scheduled a pair of shows along the east coast – June 21st in Philly at Kung Fu Necktie with Blacklist and This Frontier Needs Heroes, and the previously mentioned show with Frodus at The Black Cat in DC on June 20th. The Phlly show will be taped to broadcast by WPRB.
You can also catch Van Pelt front-man Chris Leo (brother of Ted who was in the crowd at Coco 66 on Saturday) at a reading this Friday night, June 19th at Bar Matchless in Brooklyn. Check out an interview with Chris Leo at the site Vol.1 Brooklyn.
Catch Ted Leo at one of his two upcoming NJ shows, or at the free one he’s playing on a pier in NYC this summer.
The Van Pelt‘s first show back was at SXSW, and also with Frodus. Frodus played two shows down in Austin, and recently played Brooklyn too.
More pictures and video from the Brooklyn reunion show, below…
Another video HERE.
