Market Hotel, Can I Get a Room for the Night?

First and foremost, I'm in love with Market Hotel.

As a venue, it's probably the best thing since sliced bread, if sliced bread were the last good venue (which I can't even think of, really). Another Todd P creation (I think) to join the likes of Silent Barn and Death By Audio in the underground Brooklyn music scene, it takes everything about those two places we love (the space of the first and the more convenient location of the second because, okay, even though it's off the JMZ line, it's a hell of a lot less of a trek than to Silent Barn) and smashes it together in some cosmic fusion of insanity and greatness. The funnel effect of the small stage/large, somewhat triangular space that fans out is fucking perfect for shows like the one I went to tonight. The scenesters were the cattle being herded to the slaughter that was, without a shadow of a fucking doubt, No Age.

But the duo wasn't without help. Their openers were so stellar, providing the audience just the right amount of tension and build-up before the whole damn night was blown wide open. High Places is a sick duo that sounds as if they dragged their beats straight out of the jungle, bound and gagged and complete with all the bells and whistles (quite literally, and it was a bit sad when one fell apart in the middle of a song, but beat maker and primary bells-and-whistles user Robert Barber kept on like a trooper with JUST ONE BELL!). But they're a favorite; everyone was prepared for their spot-on tribal beats (which, by the way, are complemented crazy well by singer Mary Pearson's high, ringing peal of a voice, which, in any other situation might be a bit plain, but work perfectly against the colorful jungle sounds).

The surprise tonight was Rings. Or maybe it was just that I was surprised. I'd never seen them live before, and only vaguely heard of them. But there was something about an all-female trio onstage sharing singing duties and haunting harmonies over sounds that were hollow and overflowing with emotion all at the same time. They truly operated as a unit. As I watched them perform, I didn't see three members; I saw Rings, an amoeba, morphing and convoluted and changing right in front of me, in the middle of songs, at the end of songs, at the beginnings, whatever. They were FLUID. Not to mention their sound is stunning in its simplicity and then it's building of layers upon layers upon layers, peppered with just the right subtle changes to make your jaw slacken as you stand there, in a very "what the fuck is going on" sort of manner. Then it all ends, decomposing like a body, just as quickly as it was all put together, and it's as if you just lived a life in that song; born, existed, died. These ladies are something special, that's for certain, drawing a sound that draws upon Gang Gang Dance and the likes, but is comprised of something completely different (and maybe even a bit more moving) at the same time. They're going to own the scene in a matter of months.

No Age was... well, they were No Age. Mind blowing, body moving, trance inducing, and (lest we forget) fucking LOUD. I would write more about this, but my ears are still ringing two hours later and my body is covered in bruises and I'm still (unsuccessfully) trying to forget the near rape I experienced (before I yanked and twisted his balls, of course; best trick in the book, girls). Oh right, and I have to live real life come the morrow, right? Shit.

I smell. I need a bath. Go see Rings. Go visit their myspace. Now. While I nurse myself back to health.