One or more

The Rainbow is doing a very good thing with its Sunday indie night ... this time around last week they had Saint Bernard of Love, Collapsing Opposites, Relief Maps and Ill Ease. This time around I hung a right on Sussex to get to the Rainbow, and for the first time realized that you can see the bands on stage from the street. Indeed, I could see Michael T. Weiland leading his canine companions through one of his tunes. This time around Saint Bernard of Love was 75% Expatriates and 25% Books on Books.











Next up was Collapsing Opposites. He had experienced some border-crossing difficulties earlier on, thus his song Buffalo was dedicated to razzing the border guards in that fair New York town.

Ryan sings!



Double microphone action!



The big pedal board.



And some saxophone looping.



A fun but brief set.

The power of one

As I approached The Rainbow I could see Saint Bernard of Love playing; they were the first band on an eclectic Sunday evening. Michael had Ryan from Books on Books and the Golden Famile and Bill and Damian from Expatriates helping out.



Next up. Collapsing Opposites. I last saw Ryan playing with They Shoot Horses Don't They at this very same venue. This time it was just him and a load of looping technology.



Relief Maps put on another lovely set, and with a minimum of string breakage to boot.



I'd say Ill Ease - aka Elizabeth Sharp from Brooklyn - is a bit like a one-woman Banditas. Like Ryan, she's big on the loops. She played a brief set to end the night.



I hadn't realized that she also played drums in New Radiant Storm King. She certainly is an excellent drummer, and not too shabby on guitar and bass.

Opposites attract

The Collapsing Opposites are a one-man band; that one man is Ryan McCormick who makes his music by looping the sound of guitar, saxophone, drum machine, his voice and that of his audience.

Ryan lays down the guitars ...



Adds a bit of saxophone ...



Tracks a few willing audience members (including myself, in black, and Michael D. Wieland of St. Bernard of Love with his back to the camera - this picture was taken by Ryan Hough).



A fun idea that worked out really well.

• Show reminder: Priestess, who impressed opening for Motorhead last month and the Long Timers - who have a fine new EP out - return the rock to the Dominion Tavern.