Drink Up Buttercups Concert Review at Santos Party House – New York, NY

Buttercups and Horseshit

By Nathaniel Dobson, www.FromTheCrowd.com Contributor

Stage set. Wires have formed a medusa like choke hold of the stage, as at least four maracas are strewn about the floor. A Yamaha synthesizer rests calmly atop a perfect silver trashcan, which remains aware that by the end of the show, his brother will remain a rape victim to sound. A fog machine has lined the roof with a thick pot like haze and masks a heart shaped disco ball which eventually would bathe the crowd in green sprinkles of light. The chatter of the audience can be heard over the DJs spins of what would normally be heard at a candy kid rave. My hopes are up.

                Reading other reviews of Drink Up Buttercup, a Philly band that’s barely even a year old, one would think that Paul McCartney, Robert Plant, and Jesus H. Christ himself had formed some sort of super group to tour the indie circuit. Well, they’re pretty damn close. Having celebrated the release of their new vinyl single “Mr.. Pie Eyes,” available digitally on iTunes, the night before, vocalist and guitarist James Harvey had gotten little to no sleep in the past 48 hours. However, from watching their performance tonight, no one could tell the difference.

                Any trained musician can perfectly play out a finely tuned musical number on stage, and a good chunk of them could write music that people could tag as “New” and “Daring”, but what separates Drink Up from the masses of avant-garde, E major 7 chord slamming, indie bands out there is their energy. To say these boys don’t make good music would be a balls out lie, but when music as catchy and bizarre as theirs is topped by their live performance, it truly says something of their live performance. The noise, the sound, the yelling and slamming that occurred onstage, it was extremely reminiscent of At the Drive-In during its hay day, had Omar Rodriguez not been so stoned he didn’t know his guitar was out of tune. This erratic foursome maintain a destructive force for thirty minutes straight that keeps you on your toes and begging for more, all the while churning out great music. And in a time where everybody seems to think simply making music louder and faster is better, this is a much needed change.

                Honestly, this band is not for everyone. Their eclectic blend of Beatles-esque pop and gypsy avant-garde takes a few listenings to appreciate the eccentricities, at least in its recorded form. The boys of Drink Up have no urge to end up on the same charts as Fall Out Boy and Christina Aguilera, and God bless them for it. As long as they keep up what they’re doing, you will want to keep an eye on them, even if you’re not anywhere near the east coast. Drink up is going places, having already played at SXSW this year, and could very easily end up manhandling the upcoming festival season. If you’re looking for a band to say, “I knew them before they got big,” here’s your chance. To end this off, I would like to state how priceless it was to see drummer Mike Cammarata nearly have to walk off the stage to end the last song of the set. I hope you understand, we in the audience would’ve gladly waited for you to go on as long as you pleased.

                As a post script note, Psychedelic Horseshit, (yes, that was the following bands name) just because we expect a five minute noise solo from shoe gazing, please for the love of God try to add something new every bit. Nobody wants to hear the same guitar chord on delay and extreme distortion for two minutes. And to the headlining acts, Quintron and Miss Pussycat, I greatly apologize for not being able to show my support, my sorry ass got stuck with an 8 o clock class in the morning.

Remianing tour Dates:

4/28 – Chameleon Club – Lancaster, PA  (w/ Dr Dog)

4/29 – Mr Smalls – Pittsburgh, PA (w/ Dr Dog)

5/8 – Cameo – Brooklyn, NY

5/13 – Pianos – New York, NY (w/ Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers)

5/15 – Southpaw – Brooklyn, NY (w/ Skeletonbreath)

5/16 – Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel – Washington, DC

Drink Up Buttercup Instrumentation:

Farzad Houshiarnejad: keys, wolf-howler, melodica, bass, vox, smashcan
Ben Money: bass, keys, melodica, mannequin head, percussion, vox, smashcan
Mike Cammarata: drums with water, lemon, and sugar packets
James Harvey: vox, guitar, sawed-off-seagull, walki, opera sounds