Art Brut & Gil Mantera's Party Dream, Bowery Ballroom, 5 April 06

Regular readers of extrawack! know of our love for Gil Mantera's Party Dream. We were thrilled to see Gil and Ultimate Donny totally win over a hip NYC crowd the way they did at this show. Despite a couple of technical glitches causing Gil's bank of beats to completely shut down, these guys charmed the pants off of the audience with their blend of Rush riffs, electropop, fruitcake dance steps, and insanely funny between song banter. And as you can see below, they charmed their own pants off too.



Good to see some love other than mine come their way out of NYC, too.

As usual, Art Brut threw down another amazingly tight and fun set. Eddie Argos continues to prove himself one of the best frontmen in rock & roll, and their constant touring has turned the rest of the band into a total machine. Thankfully, Bang Bang Rock & Roll is finally getting an American release shortly on Downtown Records, with an additional three new tracks added to make up for our wait.

Art Brut plays a sold out show at Southpaw tomorrow night, and are back in NYC in May for two shows at The Knitting Factory with the equally charming and raucous The Chalets. Awesome. Tickets here.

And dig it...looks like Eddie's keeping that 'stache for a while:



Here's You Tube video of "Modern Art" from that show. I'm pretty sure I saw the guy who shot this in the constantly moving crowd up front...notice how much area he covers in front of the stage:



Art Brut - "Enter Sandman/Formed A Band - Live In Vienna" mp3
(via rbally) buy

Gil Mantera's Party Dream - "Alligator Missions" mp3 buy

The Chalets - "Theme From Chalets" mp3 (via The Torture Garden) buy