Concert Review: The Lemon Twigs Give Boogie Nights To MHOW

Going to see The Lemon Twigs, I 100% felt like I was going to see a rock n’ roll band bring 70’s swag and insanity. I fully expected them to transform Music Hall of Williamsburg into their own rendition of Saturday Night Fever; converting their audiences into a crowd of John Travoltas discoing and quaffing their lush hair. Guess what? I WAS RIGHT! 

Some people you know what you are going to get, and that is why you go to get them. Lemon Twigs have always emanated a sense of party and derangement to me. They feel like Willy Wonka and Shaft decided to rent a yacht to Venus’ version of St. Tropez. Yeah….. that is a specific image. Yet, their capacity to be absolutely free, spontaneous, and colorful, while, simultaneously, being planned and set in stone is fascinating. In some ways, they prove that chaos can be organized by embodying a persona and performance style that lives and breathes on the stage. For them, Lemon Twigs is their truest, most liberated self, which is why they feel frozen in a momentous, music bubble. 

From the minute brothers, Michael and Brian D’Addario begin, the act is set. From high kicks to a sad, love song being passionately crooned in underwear and wedges, these guys should have time warped from a seedy, rock bar in Liverpool. Everything about them feels like the most theatrical rendition of rock n’ roll; moving their voices and bodies with the mannerisms of every rock god that has embraced the stage: from Hendrix to Jagger. For some reason, through songs such as “The Lesson” and “These Words,” I kept on thinking of the film. Boogie Nights. This legendary film is a perfect example of when visual meets music, and The Lemon Twigs do that. They are an inner spectacle that adapts you to their craziness so you are unsurprised and, eventually, encouraged by the boundaries their show pushes.

Songs such as, “Small Victories,” “The Fire,” “Baby, Baby,” and “If You Give Enough” played like the greatest hits of Led Zeppelin, Ziggy Stardust, or Queen. They carried an old school energy of riotous, thoughtful, and empowering invincibility within viewers. Both the D’addario brothers shares this “Paul McCartney/ David Bowie” quality to their voice; soaring and tethering notes as if their vocal chords are a bag of bricks and balloons they transfer into emotions. Yet, again like classic rock, they make every single riff, from vocal to instrumental, feel cool and effortless. Delivering humor and pain as if life never has to look bad even if it feels as such. The result is a concert that is 100% an experience going beyond music into full-on theatre. For More Information On The Lemon Twigs Click Here.