Just a few days after the historic blizzard that hit New York City in late January, Brooklyn duo Chairlift, consisting of Caroline Polacheck and Patrick Wimberly returned home after a quick show in Los Angeles to play a show for their hometown crowd. They were playing in celebration and launch of their wonderful new album, Moth which is out now via Columbia Records and what was their venue of choice? Well, it was one of New York City’s most beautiful new spaces (and one of my new favorites): National Sawdust.
As the crowd started to fill out the space, they seemed to kick on the fog machines full blast helping to create an atmosphere within the venue that truly could only be experienced being there (no photos can really do it justice). The angular shapes within the venue being enveloped in fog with their lighting is something you simply can’t get anywhere else at any other NYC venue and seemed like the perfect backdrop for Chairlift’s synth–pop goodness.
Just when it appeared they were going to jump into the opening song, the fire alarm went off inside the venue (but there was no visible fire anywhere – this was probably due to the amount of fog within the venue). Along with the band, the crowd all looked around confused like “uh, should we leave? Whats going on?” This continued for roughly 10 or so minutes and during those 10 or so minutes the band left the stage as nobody really knew what to do.
Finally the alarms went off and the band took to the stage and slowly Polacheck emerged from backstage as the rest of the band kicked into the first song. Immediately as they began their set, everybody knew this would be a special night as Polacheck seemed to mesmerize the crowd from the first note she sang. If there ever was a perfect match of band and venue, this truly was it. Along with playing songs off their 2008 debut Does You Inspire You and 2012 follow up Something, they sprinkled in the wonderful new material throughout the entire set which made for a perfect night. Towards the end of their set Polacheck had let the crowd know that they’d be back to play another show in NYC in April, and I’d highly recommend you find your way to their show when they’re back as you won’t be disappointed.
For more photos, see below:
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