The crowd at Broadway Backyard. — Photo by Mimi Luse

Option B this Sunday (Option A was here) was a sun-dappled Todd P show in the gravel and grass lot at the Broadway Backyard (979 Broadway).  As M and J trains passed smoothly by on the elevated lines, the surreal setting was the perfect venue for August’s last weekend show.  

	Talk Normal. Click for more.

Hot Box, (not to be confused with a band of the same name from Boston) started out the day with a set of badassery playing dark, tripped out girl punk with minor harmonies. Dressed to kill in destroyed prom gear that would have made Kathleen Hanna proud, the group is made up of the three Feral Sisters: Tiffany Night on drums (Mindy Abovitz, founder of Tom Tom Magazine and from the band Taigga), Vera Night on guitar (Natalja from Querent and the Good Good) and Mercedes Night on keyboards (artist Kelie Bowman, co-owner of Cinders Gallery).  

Next up was another lady band, Brooklyn’s Talk Normal, (Andrya Ambro on drums and Sarah Register on guitar) who make disjointed hypnotic songs, stripping yelpy Errase Eratta-style sounds down to their most basic elements. Where once labeling yourself "Trance/Fusion" on MySpace would have been in jest, in the case of the next act, Teeth Mountain, the label fits; but the terms defy the genres. Using home-made instruments (like a plywood board hooked up to a pedal) this Baltimore group straddled anything-goes Sun-City Girls-type jams and the more structured psyche that The Social-Registry releases. The seven-piece band was only five strong this Sunday, and while they didn’t project the "orchestral" fullness of their releases (on Not Not Fun, Night People records) the crowd seemed to like it. 

The noisey sound of Teeth Mountain made for a smooth transition into the Lightning Bolt set, which could be heard from half a mile away and brought out a massive crowd to the space. The two Brians (Gibson on guitar, Chippendale on drums) played a solid show. But it would be impossible for this group to disappoint, and this Sunday they inspired stage-diving, crowd-surfing and a frenzied mass of youth in a sweaty mosh pit.  Though Lightning Bolt doesn’t tend to banter with the crowd too much, at one point, Chippendale joked, " Our whole thing has been a façade for years, it’s all been a [cassette] tape".

Fearsome in his trademark hand-made Mexican wrestler mask, Chippendale must have gashed his hand open at one point, and during the set, the yellow electric tape he’d used to affix the skin to his palm was destroyed a couple songs in. His voice sinister through a warped mouthpiece, he asked into crowd for a "professional" glove. No glove forthcoming, Chippendale nevertheless continued to play, blistered palms be damned. After the set, audience members chanting "LIGHT-NING-BOLT!" were treated to a two-song encore. 

See our photos in the slideshow (right), and also check out Leia Jospe’s awesome Brooklyn Vegan photos here.  

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