Les Savy Fav and Marnie Stern at Knitting Factory at Baker Falls
On Thursday, August 17, 2023, Les Savy Fav and Marnie Stern performed at the recently opened Knitting Factory at Baker Falls in New York, NY. The space used to be the Pyramid Club from 1979-2020 and features a stage upstairs and another performance area downstairs (a comedy show was also scheduled to take place below after doors opened at 8PM).
Marnie Stern kicked off the show first about 8:45PM, with it being her first live set in many years. During one point of her set an audience member yelled, “thank you for coming out!,” to which Stern immediately replied “I’m going to keep coming out, I’m not that old, goddammit!” Marnie’s set included both songs old and new, including two tracks that will appear on her forthcoming record with Kill Rock Stars. She was accompanied by Nick Ferrante on drums and Jon Gonnelli on guitar. This was my first time seeing Stern perform live since 2014, and I was very excited to see her shred on guitar again in person for the first time in nearly a decade.
Headliners Les Savy Fav were up next and booked a New York City date ahead of their string of European dates that begin this weekend, which happened to be their first local performance in two years. Although the band revealed they are working on new material, no new songs were included in their setlist. Four members of LSF appeared on stage while singer Tim Harrington approached the stage via the audience dressed as Santa Claus. His walk on music was naturally Run DMC’s “Christmas in Hollis,” despite it being nearly the end of August. He joked that it was halfway to Christmas, giving the audience a few moments to realize that statement wasn’t true and followed it up by saying it was halfway to next Christmas. At one point, he asked audience members near the stage what they wanted for Christmas, and some answers were “my two front teeth,” “a Nintendo 64,” and “world peace,” which Tim thought they were asking for “wild pigs.” One audience member offered to do a body shot out of Tim’s belly button a second time and Tim’s response was “okay, let’s go.”
Les Savy Fav’s live sets are always a spectacle with no one knowing what Harrington will do next. The intimate KFatBF was no different and will be a show that I’ll be raving about for a very long time despite experiencing many of their concerts over the years.