THE BARR BROTHERS BRING RAW ENERGY TO THE HIGHLINE BALLROOM

Central Park SummerStage is a staple of top things to do in NYC every summer. Smack dab in the middle of Central Park, surrounded by trees and tops of sky scrapers attempting to peek over for a view of the show, the intimate neighborhood venue almost makes you forget that your in one of the larger venues the city has to offer under the warm summer night sky. Thursday was pretty fucking cold, and that warm and joyful SummerStage feeling was nowhere to be found walking towards the venue.

Inside Highline Ballroom however, festival season was in the air, as the SummerStage winter showcase had the packed venue dancing to a mix of various genres throughout the night. Representing Indie-Americana style was the incredibly talented Barr Brothers.

Their hour set consisted of songs off their most recent album, 2014’s Sleeping Operator including “Love Ain’t Enough,” “Half Crazy,” “Even The Darkness Has Arms,” and the hypnotic and eerily beautiful “Static Orphans.” There was a welcoming warmth to Brad Barr’s vocals that go perfectly with his lightly distorted guitar which featured a pretty bitchin slide solo halfway through the set.

The band’s styles of songs are not too far off from the singer-songwriter genre with beautiful melodic theme foundation. Their experimentation with stronger sounds and tones gives their style of music a unique sense of wild freedom. Not too many bands can bring that raw energy of distorted slide acoustic with the elegance and soothing timbre of the harp.

They almost seem like a fresh sounding, organic mixture of softer Oasis meeting The Flaming Lips, with maybe a little bit of The Apache Relay into the mixture. Actually they probably don’t sound anything like that mixture but one can play pretend right? As the late, great M. Gustave H. once said, “There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity.” He clearly must’ve been referring to the Barr Brothers.

Article by: Tommy Shackleford

Photos by: Hannah Soule