Albert Hammond Jr. played an intimate show at the Moon Room Sunday evening to around 75 people. And when I say it was intimate, it was such close quarters he had a woman (and then a man) offer to make out with him after he caught a rogue floating hair in his mouth. I imagine it is a refreshing change from the massive shows he plays (or played, as there are no plans for a show anytime soon) as guitarist with the Strokes.
Hammond and his band opened their set with “Everyone Gets a Star,” from his 2007 album, “Yours To Keep.” Itap such a defining song for his style, it has the poppy bass that plays well with the spasmodic guitar riffs and then breaks down into a big-sounding instrumental chorus. His voice drones on warmly in the background. When he played “Cooker Ship” from his latest EP, “AHJ,” the audience gave him an excited response. Since the EP was just released last month, it was surprising to see the crowd so pumped for something brand new.
His band is packed with three guitarists (including himself) and while many groups could never hope to reach the full potential in that lineup, Hammond and company utilized it to its fullest. On “101” the musicians bounced back and forth between each of the instruments, and while the riffs were not complex, per se, it gave it a technical feel that was a lot of fun to watch. Then during the building up of the final chorus, the bassist, a guitarist and Hammond all joined in together for an uplifting end.
“Rude Customer” from his new EP went over swimmingly with the audience who ate up the grinding eighth-note barrage. The track calls to mind the early days of New York indie-rock. And seeing Hammond perform live to such a small group at the Moon Room, the show felt like the beginning of a garage rock movement.
On “Postal Blowfish,” a bonus track from Hammond’s first album, he showed off both his indie side and the genre’s roots in punk. While his recorded music tends to be more subdued and less grungy, his show had a readily apparent vein of rock throughout it. He’s certainly hit a hard-to-achieve balance between slow, thoughtful and energetic and inspiring.
For the encore, he played a few more songs including a cover of “One Last Caress” by the Misfits, which was an interesting choice that worked really well. It was good to see a calm, peaceful-seeming dude really rip into his guitar and break out the distortion for a hungry crowd.
The last song he played, after the band left him alone on the stage, was a powerful electric-guitar version of “Blue Skies.” It was a beautiful rendition, and if it were still hip to smoke cigarettes, I’m sure he would have been singing to a tiny ocean of swaying lighter flames.
Follow our news and updates on , our relationship status on and our search history on . Or send us a telegram.
James Garcia is a community reporter at the Loveland Reporter-Herald and a new blogger at Reverb.
