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Last night a friend kindly invited me to come along as his "+1" to see the Bell Orchestre with The Clogs. I'm sure he didn't realize the irony of inviting a Dutch person to go and see "the clogs". It was like a night of sophisticated adult entertainment. Not of the XXX kind, but of the kind where people quietly listen to some beautiful instrumental, near classical, music. In fact, The Clogs 'covered' Schubert at one point. Now that doesn't happen very often at the usual LES indie music show.

The Clogs, a side project of The National were mellow and dreamy with viola/violin/mandolin player Padma Newsome (wasn't that Natalie Portman's character in Star Wars?) taking up most of the spot light with spectacular and intense command of his instruments. I sat down on Tonic's concrete floor and was taken away for most of the show. The standard instrumentation was bassoon, drums/steel drum, guitar and violin/viola. Recommended for those who enjoy sophisticated, calm instrumental music.

The Bell Orchestre, a side project of the Arcade Fire, is also an instrumental group but they tend to edge more towards energetic and frantic then to dreamy. Very inspiring stage presence, as we're used to from them with the Arcade Fire, particularly the adorable firecracker Sarah Neufeld on the fiddle. Such fire and conviction. Their stuff was very rocking for a set up with french horn, trumpet, fiddle, stand up bass and drums. The drummer, Stef, deserves a special mention because his polirhythm and excellent touch were very impressive. I suspect he is Belgian by blood somehow.



I'm sure I'll be able to post some nice pics taken by BrooklynVegan tomorrow. We both stole a very nice poster off the Tonic door as well. It's gracing my wall as we speak.

Downloads of the Day
Bell Orchestre - Synching (WMA)
Bell Orchestre - Rajasthan (WMA)
Bell Orchestre - Tower of Bowl (WMA)
The Clogs - Pencil Stick (MP3)
The Clogs - Mysteries of Life(MP3)