Les Savy Fav goes wrong the right way

By Joey Vergara

Published May 9, 2008

After listening to Les Savy Fav’s After the Balls Drop (Live in NYC), the band’s first live album and digital release, two things are clear: 1. Vocalist Tim Harrington is nothing short of the strangest, most outspoken wacka- doo in indie rock today, and 2. His band knows how to throw one hell of a New Year’s party.

Recorded at 3 a.m. on New Year’s Day 2008 at NYC’s Hammerstein Ballroom, After the Balls Drop is an opportunity to experience a Les Savy Fav show without being ridden like a horse by Harrington or finding yourself in a massive hugfest. Then again, depending on how unruly you like your concerts, this may or may not be a bad thing.

The little polish actually found on the band’s records is stripped away in this live setting, and Harrington spends half the time rambling about charity runs and asking the sun to go away — never mind that it’s 3 in the morning. There are plenty of peculiar moments of Harrington interacting with the crowd that get lost in the translation from show to live album, but the set list more than makes up for any residual confusion.

The problem with After the Balls Drop, and Les Savy’s last full-length Let’s Stay Friends for that matter, is that the band runs through most of its best songs straightaway. “Equestrian,” “Patty Lee” and “What Would Wolves Do?” begin the set, setting an extreme pace that needs to be maintained for both the show and After the Balls to be successful.

And for the most part, they are.

The songs, which come from the entirety of Les Savy’s discography, sound more fleshed out, even if they occasionally seem to decompose into ridiculous disorder throughout the night. That’s the beauty of Harrington and co.’s indie chaos — everything going wrong can sometimes be right. Inches’ “We’ll Make A Lover Of You” appears rewritten with extra live sass care of Harrington, as well as bassist Syd Butler and drummer Harrison Haynes’ flawless approach to a funky indie rock rhythm section. Three songs later, the show takes a darker tone with “Who Rocks The Party” off of The Cat and the Cobra. It’s a creeper of a song with echoladen guitars and Harrington’s most guttural delivery yet, later augmented by a kazoo.

After 10 songs, a drawnout call for an encore and one extended Timmy speech (heard on the appropriately titled “Tim Speech”), the band returns to play five covers of bands as disparate as Creedence Clearwater Revival and Nirvana. As far as post-punk bands go, Les Savy Fav doesn’t wear many influences on its sleeve, so hearing covers like these played one after the other without any breathing room makes for a particularly special occasion.

Harrington channels Frank Black’s intensity (“Debaser”), matches Kurt Cobain’s sloppy delivery refrain for refrain (“Sliver”) and transforms Arthur Lee’s easygoing manner into something short of a caterwaul ( “ E v e r y b o d y ’ s Gotta Live”). The covers seem a little ramshackle, but that’s only fitting with the Les Savy ethos.

And while After the Balls Drop is really no consolation for seeing a clammy, pot-bellied man in red short shorts grind his way through an audience, it’s a remarkable introduction to Les Savy Fav’s audacious live show. By the end of the set, it’s clear exactly who rocks the party.