All Photos: Brandon Bakus
Gerard Marcus
Back on June 20th, I experienced a surprising first in my life. Weird as it sounds, never before had I seen a classical performance and a rock concert in the same night.
First, I had the honor of seeing classical ensemble sixty/forty at Williamsburg's Scholes Street Studio. I got out just in time to walk into the middle of dark pop act Weeknight's set as they opened for Christopher Owens. Something about that drastic transition between musical styles seemed to heighten my overall perception of things, maybe because it nostalgically brought me back to some of those eclectic, multi-genre nights at Oberlin.
I went into the Owens show at my local favorite Baby’s All Right with all the focus and energy of my contemporary classical training. Every word, note, and phrase that came off that stage seemed clearer and more complex than I was expecting. Needless to say, it was pretty awesome. We have pics.
Weeknight
The music bathed me in deep, rich textures that I normally wouldn't have paired with the very '60s-esque flavor of Christopher Owens, but it actually worked quite well.
By the end of their set I felt as if I had just started truly getting into their vibe, and ended up wishing I had been there from the start.
Christopher Owens
"1960s music with a modern edge" is how I've heard a lot of people describe Christopher Owens' newest album Chrissybaby Forever, and it makes a lot of sense. Even when watching the performers on stage, you could easily imagine all of them hanging out with Lou Reed in the Lower East Side during the Velvet Underground days.
Whether it was love, drugs, relationships, or people's inability to look at the world outside of their own social bubble, those retro lyrical themes hold up today. Listening to Owens made me hyper-conscious of the fact that history is cyclical. All that stuff aside, though, the man can jam.
