Image by Lissette Aguilar
LoveLikeFire shows promise on a school night in NYC
October 8, 2008, at Pianos
By Lissette Aguilar
Published: October 11th, 2008 | 1:45pm
Since forming two years ago, San Francisco quartet LoveLikeFire’s career has been a whirlwind of nonstop touring and self-released EPs including its 2006 debut, Bed of Gold, and 2007’s An Ocean in the Air.
Now, one month into its third national tour, the critically revered band performed the first of three scheduled NYC dates on October 8 at Pianos’ showroom. Though allotted only an hour to impress the small audience of no more than 25 attendants (before Brooklyn-based band Frankpollis took the stage at 11:30 p.m.), LoveLikeFire started off slowly with new material (“Signs,” “When to Say When”) from its forthcoming, yet-to-be-named, LP which will be released overseas by British label Heist or Hit Records.
Despite having spent most of its career on the road, the band members — drummer David Farrell, bassist Robert Kissinger, guitarist Ted Parker, and vocalist Ann Yu — appeared uncomfortable onstage and remained stiff and a bit awkward during the nine-song set. Still, the band was charming in its earnestness to put on quality show. And pint-sized Yu, dressed in a no-fuss get-up of high-waist shorts, T-shirt underneath a plaid button-down shirt, and boat shoes, was undeniably endearing as she politely thanked the crowd at the end of every single song. She even threw in a quip to lighten the mood of the mostly quiet crowd: “Thank you so much coming out tonight — I know it’s late on a school night.”
And it was, without a doubt, Yu’s entrancing and powerful voice (reminiscent of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O and Garbage’s Shirley Manson) that truly helped captivate the concertgoers, especially when she wailed the haunting chorus during “William,” another song from its upcoming full-length.
During the final stretch of LoveLikeFire’s 40 minutes, the band showed real promise and finally let its guard down by ending with crowd favorite, the danceable and beautifully orchestrated Arcade Fire-esque single, “From a Tower,” from Ocean in the Air. And so, while the light is merely flickering now for the infant band, LoveLikeFire’s future only seems to be getting brighter and brighter.
Issue #35
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