Live – Page 11 – You Sing I Write

New Jersey Welcomes Brooklyn-based Band, Hello Tokyo

Many people often forget about the New Jersey music scene being that New York is a train, bus, ferry or car ride away. Sure we have the greats – Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi and you can’t forget Frank Sinatra was born here also. Indie-band Thursday as well as current teen pop sensation the Jonas Brothers are all Jersey natives too. Even Jimmy Eat World sings “I’m a New Jersey success story” in one of their songs, “Big Casino” from latest album, Chasing This Light, despite being from Arizona.

Often, it’s not just these bands, but the venues that encompass New Jersey that makes for a great place to discover new bands. Starland Ballroom in Sayreville always has a great, for the most part extremely eclectic, tour line-up. Even Rutgers in New Brunswick puts on good shows, both on campus and at The State Theater on George Street. And then you can’t forget about Giants Stadium which hosts the Bamboozle Festival in May, the many concerts that go on at Continental Airlines Arena or even down in Asbury Park.

Hoboken is also a great live-music spot, especially Maxwell’s, where I was Friday night covering Brooklyn-based band Hello Tokyo. Although they may be based in Brooklyn, lead singer Kat is herself a Jersey girl. She told the crowd Friday that she was born in Hackensack and grew up in Wayne. And boy does this Jersey girl know how to sing.

Hello Tokyo is definitely a band to be on the look-out for. Their music has been featured on various MTV shows and they were a part of Fashion Fights Poverty’s 2007 Dress Responsibly Look Book. The female fronted power pop band is an eclectic mix of pop, rock and even dance music, or rather just music that makes you want to dance.

Having been working on their first full-length album, Sell The Stars, due out later this year, their performance Friday night gave a glimpse to what can be expected. While Kat fronted the band on vocals and keyboard, the rest of the band – including Sam on drums, John on guitar and guest performer Michael on bass – greatly accentuated her singing style.

I’m not sure how to best accurately describe their music style to be honest. It’s a mix of many different flavors and styles which definitely helps Hello Tokyo’s live performance and credibility. For more of an idea of their style, check out their MySpace and decide for yourself. And let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

Hello Tokyo played a 40 minute set featuring 10 songs on Friday. While I recognized a few from their MySpace page, such as “The Affair” and “Run To You,” others were a pleasant surprise, like “I Spy” and “Alert the Authority,” which Kat told the audience is a song about living in New York City. You could definitely sense the New York City lifestyle with the fast beat throughout the song as well as when she starts whispering during the song, slowing down the beat and then picking the tempo right back up again. Lyrics such as, “You’ll never save me because I won’t ask you to” definitely gets the independent New Yorker lifestyle across. This song encompasses strong singing on Kat’s part and strong guitar features as well. Hello Tokyo definitely has the blending between singer, drummer and guitarists well polished.

While “Rain or Shine” might have had the best guitar sound of the set, the keyboard feature in the song slowed the night down for a bit, but Kat was able to quickly pick it right back up and continue through the rest of the song. A few of the songs played had longer intros, featuring Kat on keyboard while the rest of the band jammed in the background.

My favorite of the night was “Radio,” which Hello Tokyo closed with. This song, by far, had the most energy of the night and got many in attendance dancing along or tapping their feet and bobbing their heads to the music. You can check out their video for this song on YouTube.

Stay tuned for a complete interview with Kat from Hello Tokyo later this week.

D.C. rockers Army of Me played to a packed crowd Thursday night at Union Hall in Brooklyn. From the opening drum beat in “Thinking It Over” to the last note of “Perfect,” Army of Me showed nothing short of greatness during their hour-long set.

Having been constantly touring for the past few years with various bands including The Used, Blue October and the Dave Matthews Band and releasing their first full-length album, Citizen, back in April, Army of Me is definitely a band to be on the look out for. With solid vocals from frontman singer/songwriter/guitarist Vince Scheuerman and a well-blended guitar and drum sound, it’s hard to believe that a few years ago drummer Dennis Manuel hadn’t picked up a drum stick and Scheuerman never wrote a lyric.

“When Dennis and I first started talking about starting the band he didn’t even play drums and I didn’t know how to write songs. But it didn’t matter, because we were going to take over the world,” Scheuerman said. “We kind of learned as we went, we didn’t really know what we were doing, but we still wanted to do it.”

From concocting their own “wheat paste” made out of flour and water to stick signs up on light poles throughout the D.C. area for their gigs, “the fliers would stay up for months and months. Everyone knew our name because you couldn’t help but see our name,” Scheuerman said, to recording their own demo and paying for tours through day jobs, Army of Me eventually landed themselves a record deal with Doghouse Records in January of 2006, soon after releasing their first full-length album, Citizen this past April.

I’m always a bit skeptical of seeing a band perform live after only hearing their album because it either makes or breaks your opinion on the band. But I have to say, Army of Me definitely blew me away. Each and every song is entirely different from the previous and Scheuerman has such an incredible stage presence that really engages the crowd. From jumping into the crowd on top of a bench in the corner of the room to constantly pointing to someone in the audience, you feel like he’s singing directly to you.

Even during some of the slower parts of a song, such as in the middle of “Still Believe in You,” Army of Me is able to capture the audience’s attention with the honesty of the lyrics and rhythm of the song. What’s even better is that when the tempo changes, the entire band can pick it right back up without missing a beat or having a strange transition.

“Meet You at the Mouth” had quite a few strong guitar riffs throughout the song as well as an amazing guitar solo from Brad Tursi. Scheuerman introduced “Rise” as being a song of healing and rebirth, getting knocked off your feet and not being sure you could get up and then getting that reassuring word from a friend and being able to get back up.

Up next was my favorite of the night, “Better Run.” Slowing things down for the night, Scheuerman started off alone on keyboard while singing solo until the rest of the band joined in halfway through the song. The song is so honest and you can just feel the heart wrenching of letting a relationship end, even though you don’t want it to. With lyrics like, “If you run at full speed and it feels good to be free/If you know it in your soul, though it’s hard to let it go/You better run, you better run,” Scheuerman got the point across.

Perhaps the crowd favorite of the night, “Going Through Changes,” had the crowd singing along. First big single for Army of Me, this song was ranked No. 3 as MTV’s most played video a while back and it’s easy to see why, the catchy chorus and rockin’ guitar driven drum beats that make up the song definitely get stuck in your head. Lyrics like, “It’s hard to accept what you don’t understand/And it’s hard to launch/without knowing how to land,” are relatable to everyone.

Last song of the night was “Perfect,” which Scheuerman said is his favorite to play. “It’s like a journey. It’s a song about wanting to accomplish something great, wanting to prove that you’re worth something to somebody. And when we play it live, it feels powerful, and I feel like I can do something great. In the middle of the song, we do a section that is improvised. Brad, our guitarist, does a solo which is always great. I like to get lost in the moment,” he said.

And that guitar solo might have been the best of the night, adding a powerful instrumental segment before Scheuerman finished the song. Scheuerman spoke to the crowd before ending the song, saying, “I think we’re all capable of something great, something perfect. Something perfect.” I think he’s right.

Check out more photos from Wendy Hu here.