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At around 1:30am on a hot July night following a performance by the British, femme-fronted rock band The Noisettes, NY’s own Battles took the stage at Greenpoint’s Studio B. From the moment the math rock quartet’s guitarist Dave Konopka took the stage to prep equipment, the crowd spun into a manic state of excitement that continued for nearly an hour.

A sweat-drenched John Stanier, the band’s self-taught, seemingly inexhaustible drummer, powered through tracks from the band’s recently-released debut full-length album, Mirrored, while vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Tyondai Braxton and guitarist/keyboardist Ian Williams kept pace, each lithely bouncing around their respective sides of the stage. The crowd got particularly frenzied when Stanier began drumming the beats driving Mirrored’s “Atlas.” We’d have bet the sweaty shirt on our back that no one left the scene unsatisfied.

~Text and Film by Alisa Gould-Simon

Special thanks to Warp Records and Studio B