Last Saturday night, I was running around the Tri-State area, well actually it was just NY and NJ. I had gone to catch part of the NYOK “Acoustic Chaos” and a show at Maxwells in Hoboken featuring 9 Circles and Of Fate and Chance.
I wound up leaving Angels & Kings shortly after a drink and seeing a bit of the second band, The City Strikes Back. They played a good set although, I felt like I couldn’t hear them over the chatter in the crowd. It seemed like no one was paying attention (apparently there were a bunch of people there from Twitter who had a party earlier that night). I would be so annoyed if that happened, but I guess you have to deal with it.
We left the show at 9:15 and hopped in a cab got dropped off at the 9th St PATH station and made it back to Maxwells. I felt bad I was schlepping my friend Ines around all over the place and I thank her for putting up with my craziness. I can’t help wanting to do everything all the time. The band actually didn’t wind up starting until like 10:30 which was good because I thought I was going to be late but we were early.
We grabbed a seat at the bar and got two drinks. It was kind of an awkward spot to be in; everyone who wanted to get a drink kept coming up by us since there was limited places to go to get drinks. The bar tender was I.Ding everyone as they ordered a drink and then gave them a wristband so they knew who was legal. There was one couple who came up and got carded and there was something going on because the girl kept going “I swear it’s a real license.” I wonder if it really was. That preoccupied my time for about a few minutes. I was getting restless. I don’t know why but I have limited patience lately. It was almost 10:30 though so that was good. About two minutes beforehand we went over to the door leading into the band room. The ticket selling guy was like give me a sec and then a few minutes later opened the door.The line that formed filed in and we waited. The crowd was kind of thin, but as the set started it got bigger.
The show was hosted by Lindsay Klein of 105.5. She introduced the band which was cool. They played for a good half hour or so. The sound quality was really good. I didn’t really know all their songs, but they sounded awesome. They have a very professional sound and an effortlessness in their performance showing them to be experience musicians way beyond their years. I enjoyed their enthusiasm on stage. You can tell they really love performing. I enjoyed their rendition of “Sweetness” by Jimmy Eat World. Everyone in the crowd was dancing and singing along. The other highlight of the show for me was when lead singer, Sean said that he was bringing it back and wanted to see booty shaking then proceeded to play a cover of Alice Deejay’s “Better Off Alone.” I hadn’t heard that song in years and it was fun. The set was great.
I stayed for 9 Circles. The band had all these mannequin heads and it was kind of weird. I didn’t know what to expect. They had a unique and interesting sound. It almost reminded me a bit of that band Orgy that had the cover of “Blue Monday” back in 1998.