By Nate Jackson

Last Night:  TV on the Radio and Free Moral Agents at Glass House

Better Than: Trying to literally watch t.v. on a radio.

Download: Dear Science by TVotR...as if you already haven't.   

It's rare and weird to feel a sense of victory going to a concert before it even starts. But as the chilly Pomona winds brushed my back rounding the corner of the Glass House on Second St., I couldn't wipe the smile off my face even if I tried. Not only was I going to see one of the main bands I was hoping to see at Coachella, despite the fact that my trip may not actually happen this year, but I also got to see a band of home town heroes open up for an awesome, well-deserved gig. Anyways, enough with the personal shit.

In one of the biggest Tuesday line-ups to occur at the Glass House this year, Brooklyn's favorite sonic excursionists T.V. on the Radio drew crowds from all directions just days before they do it again, in slightly bigger fashion, out in the desert. Sharing some of the spotlight was Mars Volta key keyboardist Ikey Owens and the troupe of Free Moral Agents, a band who many of you reading this blog have cheered for since their hatching in 2003.

By 8:30 p.m. or so, the strange aroma of body heat and skunk weed was wafting in the crowd when FMA took the stage. It was easily one of their biggest crowds to date sprinkled with a some die hard fans who were the first to cheer their arrival as the silence on stage exploded into the soggy space funk of "Dragon Prow". Met with mild to enthusiastic head bobbing by the crowd, the writhing and shouting of vocalist Mendee Ichikawa picked up speed as the band launched into a thirty minute set. The heavy-handed rhythm section of bassist Dennis Owens and drummer Ryan Reiff laid the ground work for colorful and catchy noodling, courtesy of Ikey, guitarist Jesse Carzello and noise man Reid Kinnett.

Trading between furious blasts of sound, lock-step electro and meandering vocal lines, FMA didn't leave that night without picking up a few new fans judging by the crescendo of hoots and hollers that rose higher and higher between songs. Oh, yeah, cheers again to Ikey for somehow incorporating a Melodica solo into their set. For a second there, I was getting De Facto flashbacks.

As FMA's set rumbled to a close, a look back from the front of the pit revealed obvious signs of an impending headlining set. Dark silhouettes cluttering the crow's nest seating on the second floor above the snack bar and pockets of chronic mist rising to the rafters indicated that now was the perfect time to smoke 'em if you got 'em.


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