Quirky NY Chick: Action Painters Rocked The LES

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Action Painters Rocked The LES

12:00 AM | Posted by Quirky NY Chick

Action Painters: May 28 @ Mercury Lounge, New York, NY

Sometime last year, I c

ame across a record called Chubby Dancer by local band Action Painters and became instantly hooked. Well, on the drizzly night known as this past Thursday, I finally got a chance to check them out live.

First of all, if you haven't seen Action Painters live, you should go check them out should you and they be in the same general vicinity. They put on a terrifically fun show with some seriously infectious tunes. You can't help but sing along. It was all I could do not sing very loudly and off-key to the insanely catchy "Sooner or Later" which is the song, along with "Absolutely Clear," that hooked me on Action Painters when I came across their record on Amie Street last year. I'm sure everyone is glad they didn't have to hear me singing along though! Members of the audience were dancing around up front, wild and c

arefree, Tom (Haslow, guitar/vocals) worked up a good sweat and I was extremely happy I finally got a chance to catch them live. Their show is like a great basement party where you got lucky enough to hire a un-apologetically addictive, cool band.

They played a tight set that flowed nicely. Everyone knows I'm a guitar fan. Let me tell you, there were some wickedly rockin' guitars smacking you around. And, make no mistake, the rest of the band smacked you silly too. This is indie pop-rock at its finest folks. Can a person be cocksure and humbly charming at the same time? The combination is a bit of a contradiction that frontman Haslow b

alances well and apparently, it comes naturally. I don't have scientific proof, but I'm pretty sure it's this natural contradiction that separates the rock stars from the pretenders.

I spent most of my night over on the right side of the room (stage left) so, from where I stood, with the low lighting, half the time Allison (Zatarain, keys/vocals) looked like a disembodied head. The other half of the time, the positioning of her keyboards and her strapless dress made it look like she had those black censor bars going across her naughty bits. This made me chuckle as you could only see from her bare shoulders up and from her knees down making me think of the bands hilarious promo "porno" video that can be witnessed HERE, if you haven't seen it or if you want to see it again, you dirty birds.

This was another show that ended much too quickly. Why are all of the good shows too short? Ok, maybe they're not and I'm just a greedy whiner! W

hy does time have to fly when you're having fun? I don't know the answer to that question but I do know I had a great time and look forward to seeing them again!

Action Painters have been out on the road but they're showing all kinds of love to their fellow New Yorker's. They have some upcoming shows in the area, so, if you missed them Thursday, you still have a chance to show up and dance around like crazy to some really good music. They'll be at Bar Matchless in Brooklyn on June 6, the Wonderland Collective on June 13 in Queens and at The Annex on June 17 in Manhattan.

The Videos ...

"Sooner or Later"