94th Street
Thurs Dec 6 at Sit & Spin.

The hippies wound up in a funky way for last Thursday's opener, 94th Street. Just about everyone in the Sit & Spin was dancing, and because the band had begun to drag for me by mid-set, I started fixating on the crowd.

It was an awkward and overzealous group of people: There were nervous, beer-drinking frat boys, retro-hippies, and neo-hippies (ravers, drum and bass kids) in abundance. They filled the showroom, ready to dance, doing goofy stuff to make each other laugh, and mostly talking very loudly. The Sit & Spin seemed crowded for a Thursday, and I had no idea what to expect from the band at first, except that the likelihood of 94th Street being "jammy" was pretty high.

But when the band began to play, the big, adoring crowd made instant sense: These are talented people. A saxophone soaked in delay (played by guitarist TJ Berry) made a curvy, spacious melody over live drums coupled with cool, pre-programmed drum and bass beats (Kevin Sawka) and tasteful keyboards (Alex Zimmerman). It's no secret that One-Night Stand dislikes the saxophone, but in this case, it was an inarguably fine sound-- textured, sophisticated, almost-jazz and almost-indie rock. I thought of Couch, a wonderful band from Germany.

In the beginning, the hippies were still a little nervous. The dancing was minimal, and the energy in the room was happy and relaxed. The second song came in with clean hiphop beats and a lean, slightly funky guitar line at the helm, and I was sold on 94th Street. In fact, four or five songs went by in a similar manner--before things began going downhill (that is, before the hippies started getting loose: One female hippie began spinning and gyrating so wildly that I feared she would trample me). The first song with vocals was performed. It was most definitely the beginning of the end.

Berry sang an Eastern-influenced melody, sounding like Dave Matthews in his low range and like Sting on the high notes. Berry even growled like Matthews, and while the audience seemed excited about his efforts, I found the song ordinary. The music quickly began growing more noodly, which is precisely what the dancers in the crowd wanted. A space opened up by the stage, and in no time it started to look like the leper scene from Jesus Christ Superstar. Berry is an excellent guitar player, but as he began to solo more freely, the band's set lost a good deal of edge and texture. The beats were the only constant at one point, and that kept the audience moving, but 94th Street is a far more compelling band when its sound is austere and modern.

The thing that did me in, though, was the rapping--compliments of Zimmerman--on several songs. His voice lacked power, his phrasing was rough, and his lyrics were silly. Silly can be fun sometimes: The Beastie Boys made a great career out of it, in fact. But Zimmerman's anti-government, fuck-The-Man stance was just goofy. On the final song, the refrain began with "I'm an animal refugee" and ended with "If I had the opportunity, I'd shit in your coffee." It was repeated ad nauseam, and I'm glad I knew it was the final song, or I would have left the club. While the long set (an hour plus) had begun on a definite high, it also hit remarkable lows.