Jack Penate/Vampire Weekend @ Cake Shop

The highlight of my Wednesday CMJ activities was sneaking into a solo performance from NME cover boy and next big thing of the week out of the UK, Jack Peñate. After a talked about set at Fontana's the night before with Voxtrot, this performance was just him and his guitar in the basement of a dessert shop. I was hoping to get the full band experience but he provided an electric performance non-the-less. I wanted to see for myself his spastic dance moves. He rapidly shuffles his feet around and jerks from side to side while playing guitar and singing all the "Whoa! Whoa!" from his debut album, Matinee.

His music and voice is a tightly packed ball of energy just waiting to explode through your headphones. He has slight ska/dub/dancehall influences permeating through his pop hooks and up-tempo dance tracks. It's a throwback to the 80s British bands like The Housemartins, Madness and World Party. It's infectious and animated to the max, with Jack switching from Tasmanian Devil to Morrissey within each song, especially his current single, Torn on the Platform. The man has happy feet so stand clear. He also has his name on his guitar in case people don't know who he is.

A learned a few things about Jack. First, the correct was to say his name. It's Pen-ahh-tee, not Pen-eight. Whoops! We were talking about Philadelphia, since after the show he was heading down to play the Philebrity party at Silk City, and he actually spent a week there recording part of the album with RJD2. I was like, "Whoaaaaaa!" Didn't know that. Would never have guessed that. But, most of the album was done in Los Angeles with superstar producer Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Editors). He was going to play with a full band at Silk City, so I almost thought about driving on down to see it. I had to remind myself, "he's coming back when the album comes out. No need to kill yourself over it." The album gets a proper US release in January.

In any event, more important than anything he's like the nicest guy -- very personable, bright and engaging, just like his live act. Yup, here comes the man-crush.

It's my second time around with Vampire Weekend. They are the stage right now where everyone who follows music knows who they are, but then mainstream media picks-up on them and ruin it for the rest of it. Ahhhh, whatevs. Since these guys are poised from some big time exposure in the next few months, I stuck around to see them in this dungeon setting. Now I can say, "Well, I saw Vampire Weekend when they playing basements so nanny nanny foo foo to you."

Yeah, seeing a show at Cake Shop in the afternoon makes it feel like it's 3am. The only illumination in the room are from string lights. Also, there's no ventilation so it gets stuffy fast. That didn't keep the boys from Columbia University from showing why they are so wildly talked about. I didn't pick up on it the first time, but these guys play great together. They have the indie-rock version of Paul Simon's Graceland down to a T, but they never seem like they are winging it. The band does an excellent job of making it sound like one voice, rather then four guys who sporatically play on point.

In any event, these guys are heading over to Europe for the first time next week to do handful of shows before touring with The Shins. They get play Paris, London, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Berlin and Brussels. Damn, must be nice.