By: David Schultz

At the second of four Tuesday evening shows comprising the New York City segment of The Brakes' dual-city April residency, Zach Djanikian, the youthful lead singer of the Philadelphia based fivesome, won over the chatty crowd populating the Tap Bar of The Knitting Factory with a veteran trick. With the crowd chatter escalating to crudely high volumes over the course of the set, Djanikian calmly began the preface to one of the band's many roots-rock songs, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. If the noisy crowd irked him, he never let it show. Rather, using just the power of his performance, Djanikian slowly attracted everyone's attention to him, hushing the audience with nothing more than being the most compelling person in the room.

The Brakes' New York City shows fall under the auspices of Relix Magazine, who are recording the shows for a planned release on their label. Although The Brakes fit in nicely with the jammy type music you might expect from any Relix-affiliated group, their well-grounded rootsy feel fits more into a classic rock structure. The guitar duo of Matt Kass and Derek Feinberg give a powerful punch to much of what The Brakes do. Instead of taking their songs down long winding roads, they keep them relatively short, imbuing them with soul that cannot be manufactured. When Feinberg takes center stage to take lead vocals, the music takes on a harder, more traditional rock and roll edge. They can also pull out a couple of instrumental surprises such as keyboardist Adam Flicker's surprising trumpet solo.



The Brakes' songs have a universal appeal but could easily find a market amongst the high school and college age set that could push them right into the mainstream. That's not a destiny that seems to be carved into stone. The Brakes seem like a relatively young band that's continually evolving; there's room for them to grow in many different directions. They'll learn from their mistakes too. In introducing their cover of Tear For Fears' whiney "Everybody Wants To Rule The World," they acknowledged that the song predated them. If so, they can be forgiven for reviving a song that was insufferable even when it was popular.

The weekly shows at The Knitting Factory are being termed a residency, a term that's getting thrown about quite liberally these days. The hectic touring schedules of most bands now seems to make any multiple set of appearances at a venue comparable to The Allman Brothers Band's 2 ½ week runs at the Beacon Theater or Eric Clapton's month long stints at Royal Albert Hall. The Brakes' series of Tuesday shows at The Knitting Factory and corresponding Thursday night shows at Milkboy Coffee in Ardmore, PA may not be residencies in the true sense of the word, after all, they are moving out after each performance, but if the New York City shows are any indication, The Brakes are making these venues their home.

The "residency" continues with have two more dates left at The Knitting Factory (April 24, May 1) with a show at Milkboy Coffee (April 26) in between.

Labels: Knitting Factory, Live Reviews, Philadelphia, The Brakes