It was a stormy Saturday night when my compatriots and I made our way to Albany to see the Ting Tings. We braved not only torrential downpours, incessant lightning, and minor flooding, but we also faced the mechanical malfunction light and a mysterious rattling from under the left side of a Volkswagen Jetta. Nonetheless we arrived in Albany unharmed and slightly hungry.
4 slices of pizza later we entered Valentine’s which seemed small but went back quite a ways. There was an opening performer named Jared Fumari who played brooding indie-rock via recording loops and building them all on top of each other for dramatic effect. Aside from being slightly repetitive, the songs were soothing and powerful. His voice sounded like a mix between Jose Gonzalez and Paul Banks of Interpol. He was kind enough to give out free copies of his EP, which being the music hungry individual that I am, took full advantage of that.
After playing a few songs for us, and saying quite frequently how excited he was to see the Ting Tings, he finally relinquished the stage and left us to wait with fevered anticipation as to when The Ting Tings would arrive on the small stage. A drum with the bands namesake was carried onstage and within a few minutes of that, the Salford UK band took the stage, looking as if they stepped out of one of their music videos in their brightly colored stylish clothing with hints of a preference for primary color schemes. For example Jule’s blue and white striped polo and red day glow sunglasses. Tres chic.
Once Jules and Katie took their positions they launched into a raucous versions of “Keep Your Head”, and “Great DJ”. A moment that I have to recognize is during “We Walk”, which is one of my favorite songs by them, is when Katie busted out a microkorg synthesizer for the synth lines toward the end of the song. The way Katie added the synth notes into the song added considerable energy to the crowd. Definitely a high point for me. After that they played “Fruit Machine”, and the New Order-ish “Be the One”. They slowed it down a little bit for a great rendition of “Traffic Light”, where Katie really got to show of her vocal prowess. Not a band known for slowing down much, they picked right back up with the bouncing and bounding “Impacilla Carpisung”. Following it up with the much anticipated “That’s Not My Name”, to which the crowd sang along with word for word. Katie feverishly stepped around the small stage posturing with increased intensity until she exclaimed, “That’s not my f***ing name!”.
With only a few songs left, The Ting Tings finally dropped the last single “Shut Up And Let Me Go” with a manic Katie playing the catchy guitar riff and Jules just jammed over it, building and building until they just stopped, in mannequins like poses, Jules with an arm in a right angle upward and Katie threatening to hit her drum with a large mallet. Jules instructed not once, not twice, but three times for the small crowd of Valentine’s to make some noise, after three deafening roars, the Ting Tings also roared back into life smashing and crashing through the remainder of the song with Katie even utilizing a hallmark of rock and roll rhythm. Yes, you guessed it. The cowbell. After a cacophonous finish, the band left to whistles and cheers. After the appropriate amount of time for an encore to ensue, The Ting Tings re-emerged to play the title track off of their debut album “We Started Nothing” with explosive energy.
Soon after, we were realizing how much of our hearing was lost, what the T-shirts looked like, and how small Valentines really was. We were so packed that I could never fully liberate my Ian Curtis meets Herbie Hancock dance moves. Nonetheless that and even a slight campfire crackle in the PA system couldn’t stop the Ting Tings from putting on a great show in little old Albany. Well done.
