Gang Gang Dance
By Hal Bienstock
Special to amNewYork
• Gang Gang Dance is at Music Hall of Williamsburg Friday, 9 p.m., $15
• They play Santos Party House Saturday, 11 p.m., $15 adv/$18 day of show
Like many seemingly overnight sensations, Gang Gang Dance have spent the better part of a decade creating their unique soundscapes that encompass techno, hip-hop, punk, dance, world music and more. Yet it wasn’t until this year that the Manhattan-based band began to get the attention afforded to fellow musicians living across the river in Williamsburg.
The fact that Gang Gang’s latest album, "Saint Dymphna," is its poppiest to date is a big reason why. But rather than a new direction, the band members see it as a culmination of a process that began in 2002 when their friend and collaborator Nathan Maddox was struck by lightning and killed while watching a storm on the roof of his apartment building.
“We first got serious when Nathan passed away,” said singer Lizzie Bougatsos. “We felt like everything we were doing was a homage to him and that spreading his message was an important job of ours.”
More after the jump.
Gang Gang got a huge boost from the recent CMJ Festival, where its shows were considered some of the hottest tickets in town. While she’s happy for the publicity, Bougatsos takes the label “breakout band” with a grain of salt.
“That label means nothing,” she said. “What does it mean? I’m 34 and too old to worry about that. When my mom was my age, she had two kids and husband.”
Still, there is good reason for praise. The band’s live shows follow an anything-can-happen approach, with the members using their albums as a jumping-off point for improvisations and interactions with the audience.
“There’s a concert formula where there’s a band, they stand on a stage and they play songs,” Bougatsos said. “There are rules to the business and we’ve always been uncomfortable with that, so sometimes we’ll ask people to come onstage and play with us. I couldn’t tell you what’s going to happen at a show. You never know what to expect.”
