This Monday saw my generation’s simultaneously noisiest and dreamiest shoegazers, Blonde Redhead, play to an unfortunately sparse crowd at Union Transfer. Despite the lack of a turn out, the New York City band’s set far from unimpressed, including a cross-section of the band’s catalogue throughout the past twenty years [while, still emphasizing their lighter sounds of more recent years]. However, the evening’s highlight was opening act, People Get Ready. The band played Johnny Brenda’s earlier this summer… to an even sparser crowd (about 12), but this Monday they had about a hundred in attendance to experience their mystical and postmodern spectacle of the arts (in which physical movement played nearly as significant of a role as audio output).
People Get Ready began in 2009, with mainman Steven Reker, who had become known for his talents as both a guitarist and dancer and who has worked with the likes of Miranda July and David Byrne. Reker was joined by A Sunny Day in Glasgow’s Jen Goma, in addition to Booker Stardrum and James Rickman, who rounded out the lineup (which at times also includes additional performers). The band are currently supporting their second LP, Physiques, which dropped this summer and has an aesthetic that falls somewhere between Kraftwerk, YACHT, and New Order. It’s as quirky and profoundly progressive as it is uplifting and… in a very weird way… warm. And their live sets boast Reker navigating the stage like a divine combining of Dave Navarro and Martha Graham (Albeit with a hip charm and sartorial style that likely melts the hearts of liberal arts students of any and all lands.) while churning out anthems of pop that likely won’t be fully understood by the masses until at least 2035…