Peter Bjorn and John @ Bowery Ballroom

Good show last night, or a painfully mediocre one?

It depends who you ask. A lot of bloggers out there slammed the final NYC show by PB & J, making plenty of hay over a lethargic crowd and the multiple missteps by this talented but unpolished band. Within hours, disgruntled concert goers were posting nasty reactions to the show. Brooklyn Vegan, whose posts I enjoy, barely saved himself from calling the show a "total disaster," adding that he thought it was the consensus among the unhappy patrons as they shuffled out into the falling snow. He lightened up a bit, but the sentiment was clearly there: the crowd, maybe hung over from the hype and expectations, just sucked, plain and simple, and it affected the band. I enjoyed it, despite the uninterested pockets lodged in the crowd, and am only disappointed I didn't get to see them play in front of the more charged up audiences of Sunday and Monday nights' shows.

Clearly their shortcomings last night were linked to the crowd, which was composed of those who had waited months to see PB & J and those who had shown up to see the current "it" band. That combination ruined the evening's chemistry, and as a result, the band played somewhat distracted and oftentimes sloppy. But was that enough to ruin the entire show?


I say fuck all that. What was rough around the edges was soft and creamy on the inside. What really matters is the music, and for the most part, PB & J did not disappoint. Granted, there were mistakes, but the music still came through pretty much the way you might expect from a young band playing in the US for the first time (The Fork has an interview with them today.)

Highlights included reworked versions of many of the best tracks off Writer's Block, including a terrific version of "The Chills," a awesomely loud version of "Object of My Affection" and a percussion-less "Amsterdam," which Bjorn, in his only solo, totally effed up the lyrics to (I filmed part of the debacle and you can watch it here.) But the highlight was their 10-minute rendition of "Up Against the Wall," which they proved, convincingly, that while they are today's pop heroes, they can drop the hammer and rock out as well.