Review: Niki and The Dove and Twin Shadow live at Music Hall of Williamsburg

Posted by The G on October 2, 2012 under Encounters with G, G Reviews | Be the First to Comment

Photos by G.

On September 28, 2012 Music Hall of Williamsburg presented another great double bill of music at the sold out Twin Shadow and Niki and The Dove show.  A day prior, the same lineup played the much larger (and also sold out) Webster Hall in Manhattan so it was a special treat to see this show in a smaller venue.  A lot has been said online about Twin Shadow, but I rarely believe what I read since most of the articles are written by bitter hipsters that are glorified interns with an axe to grind.

With that being said, I think Twin Shadow (nee’ George Lewis, Jr.) is worth all the hype.  He struts around the stage with a confidence that reminded me of Prince several times and his songs have a familiarity in them, yet they are all original new wave/rock/pop compositions, save for the closing last song which was a cover of Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure.”  For those wondering, it’s not an easy song to cover and yet, Twin Shadow owned it!  For some strange reason, the venue has gotten really anal about taking video at shows, so unfortunately this performance was not captured.  In addition to the great tunes, George Lewis Jr. talked about how awesome it was to be performing in Brooklyn, where he currently resides and before the night was over, he got the crowd doing many sing-a-longs and released multicolored balloons from the ceiling, which always makes for a fun concert!

But before Twin Shadow kicked some serious butt on stage, Sweden’s Niki and the Dove brought some catchy electro-funk to Brooklyn.  Niki and the Dove’s lead singer Malin Dahlström sounds like a perfect amalgam of Bjork, The Knife and Kate Bush and musically, their songs are upbeat and extremely catchy.  Performing mostly in the dark, but with cool spotlights and Malin’s light up (and also colorful) rings, Niki and the Dove won the crowd over immediately and there’s a good chance that some of their songs received louder applause than the headliner.  Niki and the Dove’s debut album “Instinct” is out now and if you like dance music, you will surely like this album.  It’s been on repeat rotation for me and I am liking it more with every play. I spoke with Niki and the Dove after the show and they will be back opening for Miike Snow, so you will not want to miss that show as it will also be a double bill of great music.

After the jump, see Twin Shadow’s set list as well as photos of my encounters with Twin Shadow and Niki and the Dove.

Thanks to George as well as Niki and the Dove for both putting on great shows and also for being so cool.  How often is it that you get to discuss the Pet Shop Boys B-side “Blue on Blue” with someone or explaining what a venue is like to a band that is about to play there?  Both experiences rocked my world!