Thr Drums Bring Out All the Kids @ The El Rey - 5/14/2012

Do you know where your children were last night? Chances are, they were at the first of two sold out shows by New York's, The Drums. As we made friends with the kids, scalpers, and homeless people giving away peace stickers, my friend lamented "It seems like a good time to be in high school". After over an hour outside, we were let in. For how long the line was, it was surprising how few people had the fan club will-call tickets. Too bad. They could have saved on some service charges.

There seemed to be a heavy British/Morrisey theme with both of the openers. Part Time took the stage at 8:45 sharp and played somewhat crooning yet entirely-too-long songs. The packed crowed loved them. Then Part Time played a set strikingly Smiths sounding tunes. You could tell the singer of Craft Spells had been working on his English accent for a long time. While talking in between songs, his American accent cracked like many of the other high schooler's in the crowd. Nonetheless, the crowd loved them too.

When the curtains finally raised for The Drums at 10:45, you could easily pick out the teenagers in the audience were too drunk for their own good. The set began with the 3rd song on their 2012 release, Portamento. Singer Johnathan Pierce's gawky dance moves enraptured the audience as he appeared to them as a blonde messiah...err, I mean Morrisey. They played through a nearly equal number of tracks off their new record as their debut with the latter clearly being the high energy pop-anthems that the kids came out to see.

Sadly, the sound at The El Rey didn't serve well to their catchy melodies and it was at times extremely hard to hear the second guitar. I don't think anyone else noticed though. Their first single off Portamento, Money, was played at an even faster pace than the album version which created a mini mosh pit of singing youth. After a brief exit from the stage, Pierce performed his soliloquy Searching For Heaven before the rest of the band came back for two more songs.

The great music, the underage drinking, the carelessness in fashion choices (high-waisted cutoff denim shorts outnumbered just about anything else), and the ringing in the ears do bring me back to my youner years seeing shows. Which lead me to agree with my friend, it does seem like a good time to be in high school.