Last night I only went to one venue and stuck with it the whole night. I decided to make it a night at the Oh My Rockness show at Knitting Factory.

Got there in time to see the last few songs of Monomen (from Norway, and not the Mono-Men, like CMJ seems to think) at the Tap Bar. Very synthey and dancey from what I remember.

Next up was Brooklyn boys Team Robespierre. Holy guacamole! As soon as they began their hyper-charged dancey punk songs the guy in next to me started spazing out like there was no tomorrow.

Team Robspierre are definitely a fun band, and a hilarious one at that. Keyboardist Ty was making the crowd laugh with his off-handed comments, such as telling his fellow band members to stop trying to tune their instruments and trying to “sound good” because the band doesn’t sound good in the first place.

As you would expect from a Team Robspierre show, there was crowd-surfing involved, audience invasions, and an on-stage dance party where everyone in the crowd was invited to bust out their brains with the boogies.

But what I was most excited about was finally seeing Norwegian singer Ida Maria, who I wrote about in February as a Band of the Day. I’m happy to report that her live show was everything I had hoped it would be–and more! Ida Maria is positively electric on stage, so full of energy that seems to bubble out of every extremity of her body when she sings.

For her debut show in New York, she was backed by a 3-piece band of dudes, but it was all eyes on Ida, no doubt. Wearing a blue A-line dress with long chestnut-colored hair with bangs, she reminded me very much of Bjork in the “Oh So Quiet” video (minus the being pregnant part), which is fitting because as I’ve mentioned before, Ida’s voice can be compared with Bjork’s signature raspy sound.

Toward the closing of the show, Ida whipped into a whirlwind, running herself into the crowd, her bandmates, the drumkit, and eventually rolling around on the floor. By the end of the set, the stage was destroyed — wires strune everywhere, leaving a scene of general mayhem.

Who could ask for anything more?

Read more about Day 2 of CMJ: Flavorpill

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