Robert Sietsema

See more photos from the set here.

​Cults w/Delicate Steve, Dirty Fences
Webster Hall
Thursday, January 19

Better than: Surfing the Hype Machine.

Cults might be one of those bands that seemed to be birthed entirely on the Internet, but give them some credit: Even now, some 18 months after launching their debut EP on Bandcamp, there isn't much known about them, no gleeful delving into their backstory that other up-from-YouTube stars have suffered through, few extended arguments about their "authenticity."

Perhaps it's because even after all these months, lead singer Madeline Follin remains a bit of an enigma, shrouding herself in long, wavy hair and cutting off declarations of love from the audience with a giggle or a head-toss. Or maybe it's because Cults' music is an amoprhous sort of "retro," just reverb-drenched enough to straddle the space between Phil Spector's Wall of Sound and the shoegazing '80s while also grabbing elements from C86 (blurted, wavering guitar chords), Portishead's live show (Follin's face, as close up as possible, projected over synchronized swimmers and bicycling apes), and that part of the 1980s where so many entertainment products (Peggy Sue Got Married, Back To The Future, An Innocent Man-era Billy Joel) fetishized the "innocence" of the late '50s and early '60s. Oh, and there was a Leonard Cohen cover, too, although not the one trotted out by so many other people. (They performed a stormy bedroom-goth version of "Everybody Knows" instead.)

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No Age w/HEALTH, Cults, Ceremony
House Of Vans
Thursday, June 30

Better than: Anything you went to see last night. (Sorry Real Estate.)

The skater brand Vans has once again set up shop in Greenpoint for a month of rowdy rock shows at a warehouse, and the venue is pretty fantastic, even if concertgoers were asked to leave their skateboards at home. The gigantic space is predictably decked in Vans gear—glowing projections on the wall, a huge trailer covered in Vans graffiti outside—with parts of dismantled skate ramps lurking in the shadows. A huge garage door opens up to an outside yard where one can find sustenance courtesy of a taco truck, Italian ice carts, and (of course) a long open bar.

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Benjamin Lozovsky

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Cults
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Thursday, June 9

Better than: Getting struck by lightning while waiting out the Black Eyed Peas rain delay.

It wasn't until midway through Cults' homecoming show, when Madeline Follin fervently swayed and sashayed along with "You Know What I Mean," that the starry-eyed audience succumbed to the band's charms. Up until that point, despite a set full of room-engorging jangle, see-sawing dynamics and gleefully tortured lyrics, all wrapped up like Berry Gordy in a blanket, Cults somehow hadn't fully won over a crowd that was already in love with them.

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​A couple Das Racist curios to finish out your week. First we have DR Renaissance man Himanshu Suri taking a shot at remixing Katy Perry's SOTC-beloved "Teenage Dream," slowing her way way down -- she sounds disconcertingly mannish -- and offering a few remarkably sincere verses: "My parents gone/Bump 'Brown Sugar' all night long/You're my lady/That's my song." Surprisingly effective, inexplicably poignant. Should that build up your goodwill, by all means have a go at mash-up crew the Hood Internet's pairing of "hahahaha j/k" and "Go Outside," the twee anthem from Brooklyn "New Simplicity" stalwarts Cults, available here or embedded below. This seems like a good time to mention that Das Racist's own remix contest ends next week, so get to it: You too can make the Forkcast.

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