Blog.WBRU

As the week goes by, I pride myself on being pretty spontaneous. I keep my days open for whatever comes, and I tend not to commit myself to anything unless it’s crazy important. Last week, however, a huge red circle found its way on the 11^th of October entry in my

never-used schedule book, encircling the robotic wording of TV ON THE RADIO.

My history with the band’s music is somewhat short, only hearing about them a few years ago from a friend whose sole purpose was to feed me new music. After listening to TV on the Radio’s Return to Cookie Mountain, I immediately fell for the crazy, soulful, rockish style. Looking back through their catalogue, it’s pretty hard to tell it’s been the same band throughout the years. They’ve gone from some raw turntablism and hip-hop (their first album, OK Calculator, a not so subtle homage to you-know-who) to the polished newcomer, Dear Science, a waltz into a catchy, slightly electronic sound—still keeping the avant-garde rock approach they’re known for.

This was my first chance to see TV on the Radio in concert and expectations were high—I’ve been waiting for a TV on the Radio concert since track one off of Return. The Dirtbombs arrived on stage and immediately gave off a lot of positive energy—the only thing that could have possibly been more fun than listening to them at that time would be playing with them. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a concert where the performers looked like they were genuinely having fun while just kind of jamming out. The band finished their set by playing any instrument that hadn’t been stowed away already, a nod to youthful playground trips that never lasted long enough.

Then TV on the Radio came out. At the first sight of Tunde Adebimpe and the rest of the band, the crowd exploded. Humble as always, Adebimpe spoke in short, often thankful phrases in between various bits of banter concerning the origin of Waterfire and boring Thursdays that were met with raucous cheering and hollering from the crowd. Then he just let his voice roll into old favorites and new material from Dear Science, starting with “Love Dog” and shifting into fan-loved tunes like “Wolf Like Me” and “Blues from Down Here,” as well as other songs from Dear Science, most notably “Dancing Choose.” A few songs in, a brigade of monks descended from the sky (actually guest collaborators Benedictine Horns and actually stage left) to join in on the fun bringing in a crazy horn section that filled out the sound perfectly. Occasionally, Adebimpe’s vocals would sometimes get lost in the clamor of drums, loops, and horns, but he always managed to reach that sweet spot and push his voice to the limit. Finally, they broke into “Staring at the Sun,” electrifying the crowd to the closest they would get to full-on moshing.

As the night closed, two things stuck in my mind. One, Thursdays suck. Two? Dear Science needs to end up in everyone’s hands before the week is over.