Tiny shows can be the best. While sheets of Buffalo's cold spring rain hammered and cleaned the streets Friday night, Mike Brindisi and the New York Rock played to an audience of less than 50 people at Broadway Joe's for about 45 minutes.
Brindisi leads an ensemble of six, and seemed to be fighting against the distance between members when he wasn't fighting technical difficulties.
The more people in a band, the harder it is to establish the kind of cohesive intimacy necessary to really perform. The New York Rock function well together, and are all well trained musicians. But Brindisi still looked pressed to keep them in the same room.
That being said, the small group of people in attendance seemed to have an excellent time. Brindisi exudes a very charismatic presence, totally at home on the stage. He runs around as much as space permits, grabbing his fellow musicians and talking to the crowd, cracking jokes when he isn't singing. He bills himself partly as a stand-up comic, and his personal momentum is more than enough to keep an audience entertained.
He's also got a pretty serious set of pipes. The New York Rock leans towards a modern rock style that is heavily influenced by the progressive rock-style that ruled the world from about 1995 to 2000. Brindisi's voice bounces between a Dave Grohl-growl and a brassy, practical melodic tone.
Musically, the band tends toward loud guitars, pounding drums, and fairly intricate bass, a sound that overstepped the boundaries of Broadway Joe's small concert space at times. Still, the volume worked to put everyone in the mood.
Brindisi shined most on his original tracks, but he didn't exhibit enough of them to get a real sense of his songwriting. "Trailer Park Girl," the show opener, was a straightforward rocker about dating the residentially mobile. Screaming and bouncing, Brindisi got the crowd warmed up with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, launching with little introduction into a similarly veined song about dating his cousins.
The only problem with the sound of the New York Rock is that it seems stuck in an earlier time. The band almost perfectly mimics a sound popular a decade ago, and while it's a lot of fun to listen to, it's unclear whether Brindisi can make it on his own.
Broadway Joe's caters to both the college and townie crowd, and representatives of both crews danced and head-banged together in peace.
There is a sense, however, that Brindisi has not yet hit his stride, musically. His obvious potential is not being focused as well as it should be. If he and the rest of the New York Rock can get a little tighter and start to make their own mark on music, then they might become the rock stars that they want to be.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
