The Longcut @ Mercury Lounge, NYC | pics

January 20, 2006

DOWNLOAD THE LONGCUT: The Last Act of Desperate Men (Live)

The UK’s The Longcut came to NYC to play two shows. Christopher was at the first show, and said they were “very impressive – upbeat rock with a Korg synth. Great musicianship. Hiro is kind of a tough place to play because there are a lot of couches and lounge chairs, so a lot of people sit. The Longcut pulled through though.”

I didn’t feel the same way at the Mercury Lounge show two nights later (Jan 16, 2006). So-so performance: They use drum machines in addition to real drums, and the drummer is also the singer. Neither of those things bother me, but the Longcut never play drums and sing at the same time. In fact, nobody sings when there’s real drumming; the only vocal mic on the stage was front-and-center. The songs are all written so that the singer has ample time to go back and forth. I think they need a full-time drummer, or a new singer, or something.

Drowned in Sound describes it more postitively, “They’ve signed to Liverpool’s Deltasonic and the hype says Mogwai meets Liars. The hype has been engendered because drummer / singer Stuart behaves like the singer from Liars when he’s singing and like the drummer from the ‘gwai when he’s drumming. When Stuart wants to leave the kit and take on frontman duties, he triggers off his drum machine, going backwards and forwards in such a way that there are essentially two Longcuts – a cracking, mini-Godspeed of a post-rock three piece and a slightly less enchanting punk-funk mob. For when Stuart drums, The Longcut really rock. When he sings, they aren’t quite as convincing. He’s a cracking drummer and gives his drumstick-wielding guitar foil Lee plenty to build upon when he’s behind the kit. It’s to his credit that he has the energy to essentially play two roles at once, at full throttle, but he seems far more at home when he’s belting all hell out of his drumset.” yeah.