One of my favorite acts when I left Norway’s by:Larm was the much ballyhooed Lukestar [Myspace]. The band, led by Truls Heggero (my new favorite front man in the world), were coming to NYC for their first show outside of Europe and I was sure I couldn’t miss it. The bonus: they were tearing it up with Casiokids, another Norwegian band, but one that I was really, really pissed to have not been able to check out while at by:Larm, but did meet out and about in Oslo.

Needless to say, it was cramped at Cake Shop and while that would normally keep me from standing as close as possible, the Norwegians who packed into the room were so happy to see their countrymen performing, I was just happy to be there too and pushed forward. This wasn’t your typical New York crowd, maybe for a great basement party in the suburbs, but this group had energy was fun and wanted to talk with those around them.

Maybe I go to lame shows, but I liked the dancing in the crowd. It was a refreshing change for me.

When people say that Cake Shop is the best venue in New York, they are obviously not taking into account the amount of people that will be packing into the venue. Since the downstairs can only comfortably hold 75-ish people, its really quite painful to be at a show unless you really want to be there. After spending hours packed downstairs to see a show around lots of people, I ended up so sick that I fell behind on reviews and news in general, and this one reviewjust fell by the wayside for a bit. My bad, Lukestar/Casiokids. You deserved better.

Back to the point, we were there for Lukestar and Casiokids and neither disappointed. Both bands really brought it that night, but the second of those two acts, Casiokids [Myspace], was absolutely stunning live. Their infectious dance-pop even had my wife moving a bit, which is funny because I had sort of tricked her into coming to the show with promises of “fun”, which isn’t something you would call standing around until 12 am for the second of 5 bands. That she could recognize how rad they were was a strong indicator that things weren’t going too bad after all.

Here’s a quote from Sound Bites regarding Casiokids’ set:

“In Norway, Casiokids’ shows involve props, shadow puppets, papier mache heads, streamers and balloons, but judging by this show they don’t need all that to make a great party. Armed with a bunch of bargain basement keyboards (most of which were, yes, Casios), homemade shakers (that I thought were bottles of some weird creamy drink till they started shaking them), and a whole lot of enthusiasm, Casiokids barreled through a 25-minute set — once they finally got all their equipment to work. While I’m not so crazy about their 2007 debut, Fuck Midi!, they did mostly new material at Cake Shop and all of it was great. Poppier, funkier, better.”

The best part about their set at CMJ? All of it. Here’s a clip, again, courtesy of Sound Bites:

For the second time in Radio Exile (previously Broken Dial) history, a band went on stage that I HATED next and I was close to leaving. Yes, I wanted to throw stuff at Royal Bangs, and that sucks. Seriously, I have featured their music here on the site in the past and live, they were just screaming and off-key and really painful. The people at the venue responded well to them, but they aren’t my cup of tea.

I also don’t like tea. True story.

By the time that Norway’s number one most important export hit the stage (ahead of XYZ Affair, who were “headlining” the event), it was well after midnight, and far closer to 1 am than I was comfortable with. Lukestar pounded through their material and promised one more song…and then were suddenly cut off and the house music came on. The throngs of Norwegian fans in the building started chanting for “one more song,” but the Cake Shop had made up its mind: regardless of how well the band’s first set outside of Europe was going, there would be no encore for Lukestar.

That sucks because, honestly, they were kicking a bit of ass.

Their album, Lake Toba, is out on Flameshovel Records here in the US and I highly, highly recommend that you pick it up.

It’s one of my top 3 records this year, no question. I guess I just ruined that surprise.

“The Shade You Hide” [mp3]

“White Shade” [mp3]

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