The Vaccines; Drowners @ Warsaw

The Vaccines; Drowners
@ Warsaw
Brooklyn, NY - June 9, 2015

If the Greenpoint, Brooklyn Gentrification Fest that is the television program Girls has been good for at least one thing, it was a scene at the end of an episode in Season 1 that ends with "Wreckin' Bar (Ra-Ra-Ra)" by the Vaccines, which is how I come to know the song and the band. So fitting it be that these years later, I finally see the Vaccines and see them where else but in Greenpoint, Brooklyn Gentrification Fest, but not at a newer posh spot but rather one of the great institutions left from a time gone by - the Warsaw at the Polish National Home. Rock n roll in the big room. Perogies and kielbasa in the little room for a working fella's price. Heaven.

So it is for at least one fan (though evidence indicating more is to follow), that the punk and pop rock sounds of the first album, What Did You Expect From the Vaccines? holds a lot more water than the more contemporary and landscape wandering sounds of Come of Age and now English Graffiti (though each have a few humdingers to be sure and "Teenage Icon", the best of the whole bunch, could have been the showstopper). But this may have led to a disconnection: The unfiltered, pristine glory of the first album was met by many (but not all) in the crowd with a fervor of handclaps, dancing, and maybe a little more than dancing, especially upfront. The more subdued songs of the later records were met by a more unified feminine chorus singing along to every word (and one song I am not even sure I recognized really had them going, which shows there is a huge gap between who thinks which songs are the band's signatures). Catch the drift? Also, could it be that Justin Young has already tired of the first album's musical demand as he took "Wreckin' Bar" and later "Norgaard" and sang them in a disposable almost Dylanesque lounge act sort of way? Occasionally, he wasn't even in synch with the band when they went fast.

Despite these questions, no one got hurt, and all that is good and great about the Vaccines shone.

Drowners were an excellent fit for an opener. They had one of my favorites from last year, "Luv, Hold Me Down" and while I call every other band for the last 10 years "oh they sound like a mix of the Smiths and the Cure", this band really does sound like that, and all done well. Here's to British expats in New York making good music. But only now if they could recommend a good pub...