Photography and Review by Carlos Detres
It’s not too late to be in New York, particularly Brooklyn, to enjoy the last throes of this sun beatup summer. Brooklyn Bowl, a bowling alley dually frequented by the hip and not-so-hip, provided an air-conditioned space for a gathering to convene. Live music — the keynote feature of this spectacularly hot season in New York — shook the industrial foundation and old brick walls of Brooklyn Bowl when it was handed over to Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers last Thursday night.
The band’s flawlessly tight set exhaled thunder and inhaled applause, drowning the sound of bowling balls colliding into pins. It was the largest crowd this reporter has seen at this venue and for good reason. Shilpa Ray’s audience was crammed together to watch her stage antics, chugging at the lip of her bottle of Jim Beam and howling into the microphone. The band ripped through a pastiche of hypnotic rhythms and throat-slashing compositions in this convention for furiously raw, emotive music.
Shilpa Ray tugged and pushed the bellows of her harmonium as an extension of the raw and vicious sexuality of her band’s music. Leaping from their residency at another classic New York venue, Pianos, the band has made the rounds through the local club circuit, adding to another reminiscent quality presented by Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hooker’s music and debauched lyrics. She and her band recall the ambiance of legendary provocateurs such as Jim Morrison and the rest of the beloved Doors or a 1970s Patti Smith — all welcome in this epoch rife with cookie cutter rock and roll.
Much of their set included songs from the Shilpa Ray’s latest album, released in 2009, entitled A Fish Hook, An Open Eye. Word on the street is that we can expect her next album to be released later this year or in early 2011. She is currently signed with Knitting Factory Records.
