Les Savy Fav & Heavy Lag @ Market Hotel - Brooklyn, NY
Photos courtesy of Edwina Hay | September 12th 2021
Performing their first hometown show since January 2019, Les Savy Fav headlined Market Hotel in Bushwick, Brooklyn on Sunday, September 13, 2021. Although their previous concert at Elsewhere sold out, this one wasn’t, perhaps due to factors such as it starting at 9 PM on a Sunday rather than a Friday or Saturday night, the New York City public school year starting the following day on Monday, September 13th, New York City employees returning to their offices the next day as well, and concerns about the spread of COVID-19. The event was vaccinated only so attendees had to show their proof of vaccination and photo ID before entering the show upstairs.
Brooklyn’s Heavy Lag kicked off the evening with a great set at 9:15 PM and joked about being out of practice since they hadn’t performed in front of people in some time. The group features Greg Thornberg of Ellen and the Degenerates (which broke up in 2019), Anthony Careccia of Up for Nothing, and Josh Goan (who was in both acts). They performed with a fairly new drummer and remarked that they only have two songs on their Bandcamp page at the moment so hopefully, they’ll record more of their material with their newest member in the near future.
Les Savy Fav’s performances are a rare treat as two members of the band (guitarist, Seth Jabour and bassist, Syd Butler) being a part of “Late Night with Seth Meyers”’ 8G Band and Syd running Frenchkiss Records, among other reasons. Fans of the band and their live sets know to expect wild antics from their vocalist, Tim Harrington, and this show was no different (a list of some of the things Tim did appear below and are documented in this photo gallery). Before arriving at Market Hotel, I wondered if Tim would show any restraint as we’re currently in a pandemic and we all should be practicing social distancing, and was naturally unsurprised when their set began and I realized that answer was a resounding no. They indulged fans with favorites throughout their career and ended their set by performing all the songs from their 21-year-old EP, Emor: Rome Upside Down, which recently became available on streaming platforms.
Tim brought a broom and fake flowers on stage before their set began. At some point he brought a living plant from the venue to the stage, and then sang through its leaves.
Tim later licked the bristles of the aforementioned broom, more than once.
He removed his “I’m in Miami, bitch” t-shirt to later don a brown furry vest, followed by a white Les Savy Fav t-shirt, and then his bare chest.
The white band t-shirt was ripped open while he was wearing it.
He brought an audience member on stage to put their head through the other sleeve of the vest to become a two headed monster.
Tim placed himself against the big glass window behind their drummer, Harrison Haynes, that faces a subway platform, at least twice.
He licked the bald head of an audience member standing to my left.
Tim noticed I grabbed my beer in front of him and remarked “she said, ‘not my beer!’” and he was absolutely right.
He threw the microphone cord into a hook hanging from Market Hotel’s ceiling and sang into the mic while it was hanging from the ceiling.
This aforementioned hook was yanked from the ceiling by Tim.
He sang while standing on top of the bar in the back of the room.
Tim put a beer can, his microphone, and one of the lights from the stage, down the front of his pants.
Syd left the stage at one point, only to return to finish the song the band was playing when he left.
Tim borrowed a male photographer’s camera during their final song, which had a wrist strap, and then took photos with it.