Bleecker St. Bands & Cloud 9
Limewire.com
By Nathan Lovejoy
Dec10,2007
Bleecker St. Ban...
By Nathan Lovejoy
Dec. 10, 2007

By Nathan Lovejoy
Dec10,2007
Bleecker St. Ban...
This past Saturday night, I went out to Kenny's Castaways at the urging of a friend to see Cloud 9. A week and a half ago, I had never visited Kenny's, The Bitter End, or any of the other, similar bar-venues on Bleecker, but in the past week and a half I've made several trips on friends' recommendations.
These places are a much different experience and business than the standard NYC venues like Bowery Ballroom, Knitting Factory, or even Arlene's or Cake Shop. The bars on Bleecker play host to mostly local acts who draw a crowd ranging from friends, to friends-of-friends. In fact, seeing a band at Kenny's or The Bitter End gives you the distinct feeling that you have stepped outside of (or, perhaps, underneath) the endless hype cycles ensnaring blogs, indie journalists, and college radio. My surprise to see sizable crowds show up for the acts I've seen there probably reflects more on my tunnel-vision perspective on 'independent' music than it does on any inherent quality of the musicians on stage.

In many ways, it was refreshing to be removed from the land of buzz bands, with-it venues, and "I've heard of them, but haven't heard them" situations, but it also invoked the curiosity natural to a stranger in a strange land. Last Friday at Kenny's, I was in a room full of people who did not know or care who Vampire Weekend or Black Kids are, and seeing a band who imported most of their crowd from Long Island, including their parents and siblings. That may not sound odd at first, but try to think of a time when you've seen that at Union Pool or Don Pedro's.


Cloud 9 itself does not play a brand of music that I listen to with anything resembling frequency. They consist of a clearly jazz-trained bassist, a quick soloing, almost-power-metal guitarist, standard rock drummer and rhythm guitarist, and to top it off, two singer/rappers. Appropriately, the portfolio songs reflected this particular collection of approaches.

Their mostly original material was well-constructed, high-energy, and belonged squarely in mid-August. Themes ranged from hooking up and getting wasted in the summer, to those time-tested stalwarts, love and betrayal. They were at their best when channeling their upbeat classic rock and early nineties, SoCal punk influences, and their roughest with the low-key slow-rap ballads. All-in-all after listening to Cloud 9, you know exactly what a band proudly from Long Island sounds like - and that's not meant as a slight, nor would they take it as one.

Though this sextet would not normally be my cup of tea, they were clearly talented and had a keen sense of their crowd. Half-way through the set, there were pockets of fans dancing among the tables and waving their arms above their heads. The bassist took advantage of his wireless set-up and took regular strolls through the audience - but what most amazed me was that in their second to last song, Cloud 9's front-men began a call-and-response chorus...to which people actually responded. I haven't seen that work anywhere smaller than Bowery. These guys, one way or another, had a strong connection to the folks who came out to see them.

After the show, part of me wanted to stick around for the next band, or come back another night to try my luck seeing a band without the aide of the usual indie-rock signposts. When asked though, no one there knew who was playing next, let alone next week. It seems everyone comes for their one band, then leaves. The concept of developing a full-night's bill doesn't quite fit in with the Bleecker St. business model.