I ventured down to the Bowery Ballroom last night to check out the youngsters in Be Your Own Pet. Thurston Moore’s favorite kiddies have been riding the hype-wave full steam ahead this past year on the back of their stellar self-titled record. They were playing a larger venue then the last time they were in town, which was in June at the Knitting Factory. This was obviously suppose to be a pretty big show for the band; Timing-wise and due to the fact that they are road-testing their new 16-year old drummer. Yes, the kid is 16. I can’t even remember what I was doing when I was that age but it certainly was not playing in an uber-hyped band and hanging with beer guzzling hooligans and record industry elitists.

I got there just as the band Black Lips was finishing up their set. From what I heard, the band’s psychadelic-rock and roll was pretty well executed. I know they are a bit bigger in the Brooklyn scene so I would assume their fan-base was waiting for the show tonight to get down on it.

In an odd scene, during the band’s last song, some dude (who I later found out was some French guy named Piero) hopped on stage, did some weird jig and apparently pissed off the security guard royally. I couldn’t see if he did something that warranted the move but two security guards pounced on the guy and dragged him out of the club. He didn’t go out without a fight though and on the way out, managed to either kick/grab/punch the fire extinguisher. I thought at first that the dude threw a smoke bomb because in a matter of seconds, the club and patrons were overcome with a thick fog of smoke. I asked David Fricke from Rolling Stone what happened and he was just as bewildered as I. I thought it was one of BYOP’s young groupies because during the band’s final song at the Knit, hoardes of thumbsuckers hopped on stage to do their weird, seizure-inducing gyrations. Apparently the guy is a friend of the bands and had a bit much to drink.

Security fought their way through the cloud and announced that the show was “over.” It was one of the most surreal moments I have ever witnessed at a show. No word if BYOP actually played last night but as I was leaving, the stage was still set up.

Check out Eric Davidson’s take on the show here http://www.cmj.com/relay/?p=1099

Tags: Be Your Own Pet, show review //