Malachai – “Shitkicker”

With eyes bulging like a crazed madman, Malachai singer Gee looked liked a reproduction of the cover art for the duo’s debut LP Ugly Side of Love. With most of the music being produced from electronic equipment and turntables manned by his hooded sidekick set aside in the background hidden in the darkness, Gee would need to be fully engaging. And engaging he was, at one point jumping off stage and into to the crowd to circle around a fan who was videotaping the performance. At times their set may have sounded a little too close to a reproduction of their record, but thankfully the mad-hatted Gee added enough flare to the performance with his gritty-yet-soulful vocals over the eclectic trip hop-meets-’60s psychedelia sounds (think DJ Shadow collaborating with The Zombies). Though the late night set seemed short, Malachai managed to fit in all the best songs from their debut including the amazing 1-2 punch of “Another Sun” and “Fading World.” They saved the best for last closing with the energetic spaghetti-western-dance song “Shitkicker.”

Performing for the first time in NYC, Le Poisson Rouge wasn’t all that full for the Bristol natives. With Ugly Side of Love having been released by the red hot Domino Records and worked by the same publicists as Animal Collective and Yeasayer, it’s kind of shocking that a record this good and original has gone so overlooked by critics in the U.S..