LIVE REVIEW: The Burlies@ Glassland – Williamsburg, Brooklyn

July 9, 2014

11:22 am

story / David Leigh Abts & Sarah Shanok

photos / Elizabeth A. Abts

It is a Summer Hump Day. Your co-worker suggests a show and you aren’t sure if you want to go out on a Wednesday evening – you’re wiped after working just to keep the lights on and mid-week you’re already burning the end of the oil from your last paycheck. But let this be known, if it is suggested you go and see The Burlies and you instead decide that a TV dinner and watching “Backdraft” is your preferred evening, you will regret it at the first commercial break. Baltimore-bred and Brooklyn-based author David Leigh Abts and New York City-based writer Sarah Shanok bring you the following show review.
After a hot summer’s night trek down to Williamsburg’s waterfront, Trail of Tears-style, you truly wonder whether your oxen are going to hold up for the rest of the evening. However, you are pleased to discover that The Glasslands Gallery is a red-hued loft space in a former warehouse, punctuated by twinkling white stalagmite tube lights. The air conditioning is blasting, which is a welcomed relief, and a disco ball the size of the Death Star sways above. You exhale gratefully, thinking to yourself that the walk was already well worth it and that the evening as a whole is off to a most promising start.
Wild White goes on first, playing a set equivalent to watching your IT department jam out, and they are rad! The band emanates a rounded and edgy sound that lifts your spirits, sort-of like an intellectual, modern-day Jesus Jones. In the game of rhythm these players are first class. Their set is punctuated by off the charts witty banter between the guitarist and bassist, humoring the collection of young couples wearing matching yoga pants in the audience.
The stand-up bass reigns supreme during the second band, Black River Manifesto, a trio with undertones of 1960s surf rock fused with early 90’s Soundgarden. These guys make you want to break out your old Powell Peralta rig. Their toe-tapping songs inspire the steadily growing crowd, which by now is peppered with city-bred scene stealers taking their dancing shoes to the floor.

But it is headliners The Burlies that may be the freshest collection of rock veterans on the Brooklyn scene. Frontman Travis Morrison of The Dismemberment Plan brings a caliber of energy to the stage that makes the audience feel like they are enjoying the largest small band in New York City. Drummer David Brown, bassist Drew Butler and guitarist Eric Farr round out this Perfect Storm of gut-pleasing rock and roll that manages to touch even deeper than you could have expected. The twists and turns of tracks like “The Ocean” and “Ghost Town,” the latter of which is dedicated to a fallen comrade, are navigated flawlessly. The band is so on point that each song feels like it is dedicated to a different audience member, a sentimental shout-out customized to that special someone in the crowd. This is indeed a rare sensation to secure. We look to our right and our left and with each song, listeners seem to be getting wetter than a thrill rider on Splash Mountain. And we’re not exempt.