New York City, NY – 10 Mar 2024
Once we watched a lazy world go by, now those days seem to fly
Whether he's manically swinging a lightbulb as frontman of supergroup The Sound Of Animals Fighting or strumming his own guitar with just a microphone as a solo artist, Anthony Green is the type of artist that's always going to put on a hell of a show. The kind of charismatic harmony peddler that creates a community out of thin air even before he takes the stage. You can meet strangers in any show's line and discuss the headliners and your favorite record of theirs, but there's a cavernous depth when discussing your AG a-ha moments thanks to his prolific and diverse discography. Knowing someone prefers Nimrod to Dookie gives a glimpse of person, knowing someone fell in love with Anthony Green in Circa Survive not Saosin provides a better x-ray to their soul.
See, I have to admit my own shortcomings here… I've always had a lot of respect for Anthony Green, his voice, his songwriting, all of it, but I just never really dove into any of his work until recently. I've joked with a buddy who is way more receptive that listening to Anthony Green plays on my own feelings of inadequacy, makes me feel as though I'm too stupid to understand it. I know that much of what he does is brilliant, fantastic and all around amazing, I just always felt void of comprehension. Rather than coming off like Josh Baskin in the Big business meeting petulantly repeating “I don't get it,” I stopped trying. That changed a few years back where things finally clicked at The Carousel Tour featuring Green with Laura Jane Grace and Tim Kasher. I now get it, the performance connected and ever since his lyrics just make sense for me. Tonight at the Mercury Lounge, I felt like a fan rather than an observer, and like a path diverged in a wood, it made all the difference
Opening act Nate Bergman has flown just under the radar for far too long, supporting acts as varied as Thursday, Clutch and War and Treaty. It was my absolute delight just to watch this beautiful bastard on stage because hot damn, Nate Bergman has the voice of an angel. It's as if powerful and acrobatic, he's a tattoo-festooned Joe Cocker.
Not only did the man show off an amazing vocal range, the guy was a charismatic lecter. His 20 minute slice of Americana and Sun Records influenced twang was broken up with interstitial humor, singing “I wish that I was dead” and letting the crowd know “that was the happy one, all down here from there”. There was no valley to the set though, this maniac captivated and controlled the Lower East Side that night, his strong voice invading every pair of languishing ears taking part in the Nate Bergman experience.
The second support act this evening was Philly's Queen of Jeans, normally a four-piece but cutting back to a duo of vocalist Miri Devora and bassist Mattie Glass for the evening. The dreamy-indie act laid souls bare on the stage of The Mercury Lounge, with a humble charisma and haunting melodies. The duo wowed those of us in attendance, overwhelmed by the anxiety and romance in their songs, we sat slack-jacked and fully immersed.
Anthony Green got his chance to lead the stage and wasted no time in making it real fucking real. Green, on stage, is not only the most beautiful man I've ever seen, he is also among the most compelling humans behind a mic. From the moment he kicked things off with “I Don't Wanna Die Tonight,” through his performance of Circa Survive classics “Dyed In The Wool” and “Get Out” Green enticed the crowd into his fractured psyche. A large majority of those of us there knew he was singing and writing every word just for us, we felt it in our bones and no level of logical reasoning would convince us otherwise.
Green was engrossed in the crowd, and all in on his music. Green's set included a guest spot from members of Baron Tiger performing “Love” and “Why Must we Wait” while he fawned over their music and their taste. Even on the improv workshopping of an make it up as we go, silly ditty, known only to those who witnessed it as “Get The Body Down,“ Green's personality shined through and his music injected itself into the veins of his fans. Echoing an earlier sentiment from Queen of Jeans, AG thanked the crowd for their kindness, their appreciation and their good behavior on the subdued evening.
The only down spot to the set or the show as a whole came after Green closed things out “East Coast Winters” and quickly left the stage. It felt like there would be more, but an encore didn't come through tonight, the man just left the stage in an underwhelming procession and slowly but surely the crowd meandered into the city streets, sated if not slightly confused at the rushed denouement.
Odd exits aside, I wish I was a better writer, because no words in my mind can come together to form a fair description of how special this whole thing was. This is the sort of life-changing event college essays are supposed to be based on. While my love of live music has never fully waned, this show, this night with these performers breathed new life into a jaded old man. My cynicism evaporated as the ghosts of the Bowery music scene and some of the greatest minds of our scene came together for a perfect storm. This level of talent and optimism is what the world needed after the last few years and this trio was, undoubtedly. the ideal combination to bring it to the masses.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed's musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he's self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/