If you truly believe that music is moving entirely forward – not cyclical – you need only to have peeked inside during any given moment of last night’s Diamond Rings/Twin Shadow live musical appearances at the Great American Music Hall. Your impressions would shift. New wave revival remains viable, those electro-soaked keyboard jams on stage, the half-shaved heads and feathered accessories in the crowd (including the feathery bits attached to the young miss thang who was removed quickly after Twin Shadow began thanks to an illegal sip of costly beer). It’s something I’ve grumbled about in the past, but for no good reason.
Twin Shadow could be described as both a Brooklyn quartet and, more accurately, as the stage name of George Lewis Jr. — who looked like Morris Day plus Bruno Mars with that skinny mustache, gold bib necklace, and fashion chapeau last night, but in my mind sounds more like a R&B-shot Morrissey. Midway through a fine synth-saturated, occasionally keyboard tinny set that included most tracks off Lewis Jr.’s danceable debut album Forget, the band broke into “Yellow Balloon,” a pulsating ode shot directly backwards into the not-so-distant musical past, with Lewis Jr. in full swoon mode.
That’s when I felt it: despite my bitter blathering, this nostalgic jolt of colorful energy feels damn good, especially compared to the fuzzed out, slow-moan apocalyptic nature of the music I’ve been vibing as of late; bring on Adam Ant warrior eye-makeup (as opener Diamond Rings sports in the video for his song “Something Else” — last night’s set closer) and Siouxsie and the Banshees bird’s nest hair fluff (as seen in the audience). If it keeps feeling this good, I too won’t soon Forget. Oh, the heart-felt sentiment and cutesy outro. That’s another thing I remember from the 80s.