The Radio Dept. at NYC Popfest

Frank YangI’ve been to a LOT of shows in the past decade or so, and as such my list of bands whom I’m still waiting to see live is pretty short by this point - and last week, it got one big name shorter when I got to see reclusive Swedes The Radio Dept not once but twice in New York thanks to their headliner status at NYC Popfest. The venue for the big show was the Bell House in Brooklyn, a good-sized venue with a vibey bar/lounge up front and a nicely-laid out if horribly-lit live music room in back. Though The Radio Dept remain very much a cult band, the show was well sold out - probably with no shortage of fans like myself willing to make a pilgrimage to catch one of their rare live performances. And do some shopping. Hey, any excuse to plan a trip to New York City.

But even though I was anxious enough to see The Radio Dept live to make a road trip out of it, that doesn’t necessarily mean that I expected them to put on a great show. After all, this was an outfit that was famously reclusive, played out very infrequently and whose records were very much studio creations (even if the studio in question sounded like a bedroom) - not really a recipe for an epic live show. But regardless, an opportunity to see they who’d created music so dear to me was not to be passed up and so I went.

Read more at Chromewaves &rarr

Photos: The Radio Dept, Pants Yell!, The Secret History, Eux Autres, Computer Perfection @ The Bell House - May 16, 2009
MP3: The Radio Dept - “Freddie and the Trojan Horse”
MP3: The Radio Dept - “The Worst Taste in Music”

- Frank Yang