Concert Review: Erase Errata at McCarren Pool, Brooklyn NY 7/8/07

Further proof that the audience for rock music is New York City has scattered: Erase Errata were totally kicking ass, the show was free, but the old swimming pool basin was about a third full. There was a small crowd of a couple hundred people gathered close to the stage, where the band was actually audible (away from the stage, it’s a predictably muddy ooze of low frequencies), but those scattered around the perimeter seemed more interested in sunning themselves. Then again, if money is no object, and you have the option of seeing the band at an airconditioned club for, say, $60…well, in the immortal words of Cyndi Lauper, money changes everything.

Sad, because Erase Errata’s searing set, clocking in at barely 45 minutes, was all too brief. Particularly impressive considering this was a scorching hot afternoon. Erase Errata are a very high-energy band, most of the material they played today was very fast, and the trio was obviously getting a hell of a workout. Bianca the drummer played a lot of impressively long, intense, marvelously precise 16th-note runs; bassist Ellie kept in perfect sync with the drums, stealing a drumstick and using it for a slide at one point (though this was barely audible). Guitarist Jenny somehow makes her furious up-and-down strumming and tremolo picking look effortless. When she wasn’t slamming out screechy, trebly chords, she threw out some tasty flamenco-inflected lines, as well as a lot of deliriously evil firestorms of overtones and wild noise. For the most part, she delivered her vocals spoken-word style rather than singing, and most of what she was talking about was lost in the mix, but what she was doing came across as comfortably conversational rather than contrived.

In the few moments she wasn’t wailing, she played den mom to the audience: “Are you all hydrated? Wearing your sunscreen?” A lot of this band’s songs are supremely danceable, but nobody moved a muscle. Then again, this is Williamsburg, Roger Waters’ Trial in full effect: “Showing feelings of an almost human nature? This will not do! Call the schoolmaster!!!!!”