Kung Fu Necktie sits casually beneath the Market-Frankford line on the dirty corner of Philadelphia’s Front and Thompson streets, and Sunday night they let indie-rock fans into their steamy interior to see The Pains of Being Pure at Heart play to a room packed ear to ear. After Philly’s Brown Recluse Sings wavered between miniature pop freak-outs and Syd Barrett-type ballads, The Depreciation Guild cooed a sort of 80’s creep-pop to a still crowd who somehow fought off the urge to froth and foam into a dance party. Perhaps the 8-bit accompaniment and complex drum rhythms pushed the warm and huddled mass past the dance threshold. Regardless, they shifted and huddled closer to the stage as Kurt from The Depreciation Guild crawled behind the drums and prepared for a second set with the Pains, who tuned, plugged in, and set up.
Outside, a Mark III van caught the front end of a new Nissan Rogue while trying to park, ripping the bumper off entirely, and despite the crowd of smokers laughingly imploring the driver to run, she wrote a note and left her insurance information before driving east on Thompson. Alas, the pains of being pure at heart!
Inside, another kind of pain unfolded, the awkward sort reminiscent of innocent 1950’s firsts: first dates, first kisses, first cardigan sweaters, first songs. Following a brief thanks to the previous musicians, the foursome launched into “This Love is Fucking Right.” Heavily distorted major chords and hopping bass lines continued on to “Young Adult Friction,” a song about losing virginity in a library. At about this point, the crowd seemed resurrected from its coma into small-scale signs of life: heads wobbled loosely on necks or bobbed up and down, one or two fists pumped. One pocket of the crowd knew the words and sang along loudly, twisting.
Kip, vocals and fuzz-guitar, took a moment in between songs to kindly ask someone in the back of the room to get some water for Kurt, who was looking a bit dehydrated. He smiled awkwardly at the microphone and hedged out something like, “He’s playing two sets tonight.” I thought to myself, My God, what a polite young man. He thanked some faceless figure in the back before bashfully beginning “Come Saturday,” another sing-a-long tune that more of the audience seemed to know. He and Peggy traded off shouting lyrics, while Alex plodded a little dance out and focused on holding the bass steady with Kurt’s drumbeat. Peggy sang little ooh’s and fought the hair out of her eyes.
The drums and bass never dropped a decibel throughout the show, at times overpowering Peggy’s Nord and counter vocals. She seemed to have been strategically placed center stage to make up for her softer voice, which rang out best during “Come Saturday.”
Perhaps the absence of dynamic instrumentation amped the crowd up to a level that couldn’t be altered later. Though only parts of the crowd visually responded to the reverb-laden and fuzzy progressions, they responded at a constant level throughout the evening. With each song clocking under 3 minutes, I hardly had a chance to take a song in before it ended.
One had the impression that the purity on stage was, in fact, a put-on, some gimmick to match the group’s name, but as Kip thanked his mother for coming to the show and apologized for the profanity, it was clear that there was no gimmick at play. There was an honesty in every line and every chord that made me skeptical, but as the band smiled at each other in between songs and smiled at nothing during songs, I understood that they all truly believed in what they were doing on stage. Philadelphia was the second stop on a tour that begins with nine consecutive shows in various parts of the northeast. Hopefully their spirits can stay high through the duration of the tour, and maybe Kip will not write off encores saying, “Encores? Aren’t those kind of cheesy?” —Yes, Kip. Encores are cheesy, but that’s what you’re going for.
This comment stream is so meta. Great review Kelly.
by chris on Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 07.50 pm from the entry: Flying Lotus - "Cosmogramma" - Buy It
no prob. The whole album is excellent, combining some of the harder sonics of Los Angeles with the meat of his debut and obviously difficult to summarize in only 50 words… 
I’d say it’s on par with the debut, but better than Los Angeles.
by kelly on Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 06.23 pm from the entry: Flying Lotus - "Cosmogramma" - Buy It
By the way, I really liked the mp3 posted. Thanks.
by Joshua H on Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 06.17 pm from the entry: Flying Lotus - "Cosmogramma" - Buy It
WHO WROTE THIS...PUKE ! “WHO WROTE THIS...PUKE ! “Picture yourself coasting your bike past space funk palm trees, homeless harpists, vintage video arcades, electronic drum circles, and 60s psychedelic singers who’re waiting for the bus. Cosmogramma is kinda like that if someone suddenly tripped you just as you’re starting to enjoy the ride. But in a good way.””
by Joshua H on Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 06.17 pm from the entry: Flying Lotus - "Cosmogramma" - Buy It
you’ll notice the author’s name under title.
by kelly on Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 06.11 pm from the entry: Flying Lotus - "Cosmogramma" - Buy It
WHO WROTE THIS...PUKE ! “Picture yourself coasting your bike past space funk palm trees, homeless harpists, vintage video arcades, electronic drum circles, and 60s psychedelic singers who’re waiting for the bus. Cosmogramma is kinda like that if someone suddenly tripped you just as you’re starting to enjoy the ride. But in a good way.”
by HKD on Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 06.10 pm from the entry: Flying Lotus - "Cosmogramma" - Buy It
i saw them open for the Cave Singers, not very original, the crowd was not into it either, frankly i think they suck
by rigamarole on Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 11.30 am from the entry: The Dutchess & The Duke Tour Dates, Y'all
So, clearly, we should do a Zac&Zack;vs. Josh&Josh;dueling review feature, pitting Philly against Boston, and settling, once and for all, the age-old question.
("Why haven’t we all moved to New York?” being the question, in case you didn’t know.)