No line formed outside Baths’ sold out concert. Scalpers didn’t loiter or profit off the 10 dollar show outside Mercury Lounge, in New York City’s Lower East Side. Maybe with age, obtaining the best floor spot doesn’t matter anymore and psychic late show prediction powers develop.
On February 16th, a 21 and older crowd trickled through a dark dive bar beholding a stage amidst cushioned bench-lined walls.
True Womanhood (the odd band out amongst plural noun named acts) opened andHouses followed. Braids calmly wailed their way through trippy dream pop harmonies.
New York City crowds don’t tend to dance, and they hardly made an exception for Will Wiesenfeld, vocalist and DJ, a.k.a. Baths. The crowd lost enthusiasm when Weisenfeld’s nasally voice made appearances in tracks off his 2010 album, Cerulean.
Patches of dancers, (mostly tectonically grinding couples) complied with Wiesenfeld’s request to “act excited,” especially to his newer club sounds. Everyone swayed to “Hall,” a track Wiesenfeld introduced as “cute.” The crowd dwindled prematurely. Humble Wiesenfeld, easily mistaken for a recovered Jersey scene kid (he’s from California), sold his own merchandise while Braids (were they even old enough to be at Mercury Lounge?), casually sat across the bar.
Leah Rodriguez