Melissa Auf Der Maur played her first NYC show in a very long time last night and of course I was there.  It was also my first trip to the new Knitting Factory Brooklyn.

I have to preface this post with my bias towards Auf Der Maur.  Hole is one of my all time favorite bands and I met Melissa outside my one and only Hole show 10 years ago. She was really great.  A few years later when she was touring for her debut solo album she hit NYC and unfortunately I was a few months short of 21 and couldn’t go but my girlfriend at the time did and she had Melissa write me a really great note telling me to hurry up and be 21 already so I could go and see her.  So I was super excited about this show.

The other reason I was excited about this show was that it was going to be my first time at the recently opened Knitting Factory in Brooklyn.  The old Knit located in Manhattan at the famous 74 Leonard Street was perhaps my favorite venue in the city and hosted many epic nights of incredible music.  I was very sad when it closed and hoped this new site would live up to the old one.  While this one doesn’t have the same feel as the old one it is a nice room.  From the main bar you can see through a window to the stage and the stage itself has a bar type edge so you can rest on it and also put your drink there.  The sound was also pretty good, especially since I like to stand as close to the stage as possible, where the sound is usually the worst.

So back to the show.  Doors were at 7.  The first act, Blacklist, went on at 8.  They were just generic almost coldplay sounding crap.  Really nothing special about them at all.  They did a 45 minute set that seemed to go on forever.  At 9 the next act Mike Edison & The Space Liberation Army went on.  This band featured guitarist Gary Lucas from Captain Beefheart and Jeff Buckley which seemed promising but turned out to be off beat (literally not on the beat) fumbling of a band that seemed like they meant well but were overpowered and unfortunately totally ruined by frontman Mike Edison who is apparently a writer, formerly for magazines such as Screw and Cherry (two he name checked during his set), and now of a memoir.  His “songs” were basically him reading excerpts of his book over the music.  Unfortunately the writing was extremely cliche and he was trying much to hard to be a cross between Burroughs, Rollins, and Thompson.  At 10 the final opener went on, Kid Savant, who took forever to set up their 3 keyboards, MacBook, and like 90 pedals.  They were best summed up as hipsters playing godawful techno who also mangled did a cover of “Ziggy Stardust”.

It was during this cover that my friend who had stepped out to make a phone call came running back in literally shaking.  “Courtney is here”.  Immediately my heart started racing.  I mentioned my insane love of Hole above and Courtney is the epitome of that.  On that same day that I met Melissa I also met the rest of the band, Courtney included.  When I saw her I remember losing any kind of control I had and just blurted out “Oh my god I love you so much”.  And I meant it.  Say what you will about her but she is a Rock Star.  As my friend was going out the door Courtney was coming in.  Apparently she had just gone straight into the back.  We spent the rest of the Kid Savant set and the setup afterwards pondering if Courtney would come out during Melissa’s set.

Anyway finally at about 11:30 Melissa took the stage.  Like I said I’d never seen her solo live, but I’d always liked her solo album.  Melissa was just as I had remembered her, a tall pale goddess with the reddest hair ever.  Her and her band really rocked the place.  The crowd seemed kinda dead to me though.  I was screaming my head off while Melissa made her bass her bitch much like any guitar god does with their guitar.  She was obviously having fun, although she did seem nervous, especially when singing.  She didn’t seem very comfortable with the singing at first.  Although she has a great voice.

She was very interactive with the crowd, making little waving gestures and constantly thanking everyone.  She played a mix of new stuff, as she is currently recording a new album, some instrumental stuff from the soundtrack to her movie “Out Of Our Minds” (screening tonight at the Anthology Film Archives as part of the Royal Flush Fest), and stuff from the first album.  It was wonderful.  She definitely went through all the hits.

The set itself was unfortunately pretty short, although it didn’t feel that way.  It was only 45 minutes including a 1 song encore.  She explained that they literally didn’t have anymore songs to play because her band were new, this was only their 7th show together (the first in the US), and that they’d been focused on new stuff so they didn’t go back and learn much old stuff.

It didn’t matter because the set seemed perfect to me.  The entire band really killed it and was filled with energy.  When they tour, which is going to be soon, especially if you’re in Canada, you should definitely check them out.  Besides watching Melissa own the room, you get to see the MAdM personalized stage costumes, with the guys wearing red priest collars and clothes with her M logo on them as well as Melissa’s knee high boots with the same logo.  Check them out and if you haven’t heard the first album samples are below.  Also a couple more pictures.