REVIEW: THE PLUG INDEPENDENT MUSIC AWARDS
Last night’s annual PLUG Independent Music Awards flew by like a deftly maneuvered public relations event.
The goal: to shove, er, show off as much indie cred as possible in three and a half hours.
The Awards took place at still new-ish three-story venue, Terminal 5. The event squeezed in seven live acts, with a few awkward comedic bits in between, courtesy of host Patton Oswalt.
St. Vincent took the stage thirty minutes into the program after winning Best Female Artist and played three songs. Singer Annie Clark has a sweet, child-like voice, which was juxtaposed with flourishes of violin, doses of cacophony, and sudden, swelling dynamics that created a full, epic sound. Her debut, Marry Me, made many best-of-2007 lists, with Clark simultaneously inspiring indie crushes everywhere.
I spotted a fair amount of Obama buttons (a Bauhaus one too), but otherwise the awards show was non-political until Patton thanks a list of sponsors including Bowery Presents, SESAC, Dell Lounge -- and then tacks on Halliburton, Al Qaeda and Bush in 2008.
There was applause for the easy Bush jab, but I did not care for the Dell Lounge. They had sponsored a nice area on the second floor balcony deemed the Blogger Pit with a great view for aerial live photos along with half a dozen Dell laptops for bloggers to use (is it necessary for live blogging when the show was being played live online?). I thought it was a novel concept and tried to step in and take some photos of St. Vincent’s performance until a staff member informed me that it was only for “designated bloggers.” For an indie awards show, how indie is that? Maybe indie artists don’t prefer just indie bloggers in the hierarchal blog realm (Stereogum shining superlative since it won Best Music Blog) and besides, how indie is it to award iTunes as the Online Record Store of the Year?!
It was obvious that the audience generally was not enthused about Brit grime rap artist Dizzee Rascal’s performance. Judging from this brief performance alone, it’s hard to grasp how he won the U.K.’s coveted Mercury Music Prize in 2003 at age 18 for his debut album, Boy in the Corner. He left the stage with his middle finger to the audience, so maybe it was obvious that Dizzee was not enthused about NYC scenesters either.
The National’s “Fake Empire” won “Song of the Year.” They accepted the PLUG award sans two members including lead singer Matt Berninger. As a crowd favorite and critically considered one of the best bands of 2007, I’m curious why the NYC-based band wasn’t performing for the program. Gogol Bordello won Best Punk Album of the Year and immediately and appropriately, a guy next to me exhorts, “What?! Gogol Bordello isn’t punk!” The Arcade Fire won Album of the Year (in the General category, don’t ask…) and some boos followed with Patton retorting, “What? Did they sell too many albums for you? Are they not indie anymore?” Equally un-indie, Radiohead won Album of the Year in the Obsessive category. Not sure what the General versus Obsessive divisions mean. Isn’t it a known fact that Radiohead fans are obsessive?
Hometown band The Forms were OurStage’s Emerging Artist and with only a chance to play two songs live, the set was too brief to even attempt making a lasting impression (slight comparisons to Rogue Wave and Dirty on Purpose come to mind). Jose Gonzalez’s acoustic set was also short and sweet. The Argentinean Swede’s acoustic set was hard to comprehend since English is his third language. Nonetheless his folk songs were well received. And he didn’t depart flipping off the audience.
“I feel really awkward, like my dad at a rave,” Patton jokingly confessed at one point and like an adult version of kindergarten show-and-tell, the PLUG Awards were, indeed, awkward.
But on to the main event. Presenting Nick Cave with the PLUG Impact Award (last year it was Stephen Malkmus). Clad in a slim three-piece black suit, chest bearing, hair slicked back and with full-on cowboy/ porn stache, Nick looked like a cross between Daniel Day-Lewis’ character Daniel Plainview and his fake movie brother played by Dillon Freasier from “There Will be Blood.” He and the Bad Seeds did look partly influenced by 80s used car salesmen, too.
While the set was riveting, two-thirds of the nine songs were from their self-proclaimed “monstrously good new album.” Listening to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds live, it was hard to get past the “There Will be Blood” analogies especially since they came in spades. With five members backing him (two drummers) with thick bass grooves and hard-hitting full come-ons, Nick’s baritone delivery was a voracious rap-like spitfire full of Daniel Plainview-esque claims like, “And I kick ‘MF-ing’ asses like you every day.” (Do indie circles prefer rap in guise of white singers, perchance?) His preachy, urgent style brought to mind images of “There Will be Blood’s” pulpit pusher Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), but instead of redemption, Cave’s songs are explicit eulogies on salvation gone sour and do-it-yourself guides on how to get to hell quickest: tirades of hard lives, lost souls and murder.
Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed his dark and buoyant set. His stage presence was very commanding and at the same time genteel, leaving the stage extolling to the crowd, “God bless you all.” Which is rare to hear at a NYC concert these days and he, too, didn’t flip the bird. Thanks Mr. Cave.
As the lights flipped on, I overheard upon exiting, “It wasn’t a great set. It wasn’t bad, but you know me, they’re my favorite band. I’d get his lyrics tattooed on my back in a heartbeat.” So maybe Nick Cave and his fans should be considered in the Obsessive category too.
Facebook
Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
heartofstrings says
HE DREAMS AWAKE NEEDS TO BE THEIR NEXT YEAR!!!!! IM IN LOVE WITH THE NEW BOWIE ~ SYD BARRETT ~ ALAN FINK FOR PRESIDENT OF U.N