The Constantines @ Mercury Lounge

The Constantines
Mercury Lounge, New York, NY
April 16, 2008
http://www.constantines.ca

Delayed a month due to injury, the Constantines returned to New York City ready to entertain the crowd at the Mercury Lounge. As one member of the audience loudly put it in a moment of downtime, “CONSTANTLY ROCKING!”

It’s a little hard to describe the Constantines’ music – melodic, syncopated, working in harmony with two guitars, sharp edges to the music and a little bit of a gruff voice. Their music is as ironically contradictory as their lyrics when they belt out, in unison, “We want the death of rock and roll!” Since they embody much of the good left in the genre, it would be hard to read that as anything but a cry for revolution.

And the crowd loved it.

The band played a mix of old songs from as far back as their debut album and new ones from the recently released Kensington Heights. People throughout the small venue sang along for the whole show.

Although this was my first time seeing the Constantines live, I have been listening for years, and was thrilled to see the way their music translates from disc to stage. I suspect the best is yet to come.