Liturgy live, elsewhere

NY Eye & Ear Festival II
Knitting Factory
July 9, 2008

The four-night, three-venue NY Eye & Ear Fest roared into gear last night, showcasing the best in New York's rough edges--the bands too ugly to be embraced by indie-rock blogs, but too good to be doomed to MySpace obscurity. Intrepid festival reporter Christopher R. Weingarten somehow caught all of the bands that played and has returned with handy facts, enlightening statistics, and aching feet. The fest, by the numbers, below.

Cost of a ticket: $12

Number of bands who played: 13

Cost of a ticket to the Matt & Kim show at Pier 54 that sucked up a substantial amount of the audience: $0

Number of bands in the first three hours that had a guitar player: 1

Bands who dressed in all black, either as coincidence or aesthetic choice: 3

Three things I didn't expect to see in the first hour (in descending order): Girls, dancing, girls dancing

Hours of continuous drone in the continuous drone room: 7

Number of actual Blondes in the kraut-tastic band Blondes: 0

Best name for a Godflesh/Swans -type band that I cant believe wasn't already taken: Hunters

Best creative mischief: Dinowalrus changing their Roland keyboard to read "Bolan"

Worst creative mischief: Dinowalrus using strobelights practically nonstop

Most unlikely black metal band accessory: (tie) The gym shorts on Liturgy's drummer; the Air Jordan shirt on Liturgy's guitarist

Inflatable bananas inexplicably floating around the venue: 2

Best soundguy line: "If vocals are important to you, you should drop the levels down a little bit."

Worst remnant still in the completely gutted and ready-to-move Knitting Factory: The ugly-ass KNITTING FACTORY stage banner

Best band of the night: Liturgy, who somehow turn black-metal washouts into glorious explosions of joy.

Best and/or only use of slap bass: Religious To Damn

The NY Eye And Ear Festival continues Friday at the Knitting Factory, Saturday at 92YTribeca, and Sunday at Death By Audio.