Photos and Words by Carlos Detres

San Francisco-based, Weekend released their debut, Sports earlier in November but singles that had begun their rounds through the blogosphere immediately snagged my attention. The cool sound, the rumble of rhythm, and cold, airy vocals on Sports are the kind of drug I prefer doing, late into the wee hours of morning. When I learned that they were playing in New York, I knew that I had to do whatever I could to attend and bring them to our audiences here on the Whiskey Dregs.

The Cake Shop, if you haven’t been, is one of the last bastions of Rock and Roll left on the increasingly SoHo-fied Lower East Side but unfortunately, it comes with the sound system that the LES is also notorious for. Despite this, Weekend performed the best they could under the circumstances, delivering their concept to a stage of a very interested audience.

The band played their two songs that are personal favorites of mine, “Age Class” and “End Times” (the lead singer of Young Prisms joined on vocals for the latter song). These songs, paired with a curious audience, began a thrashing of excitement that reverberated with the congealed pairing of singing and wide eyes. It dawned on me that if this band continued to play these kinds of songs that their work could go even further. Although I appreciated their debut album, I heard the seedlings of some potentially good shit coming from the band.

Weekend’s performance was good but not great, however this could be due the dichotomy of an audience not wholly familiar with the band’s stylings and also the seminal beginnings for a band with a single album. But, like I said, I truly see this band going in a very strong musical direction if they continue the exploration of their sound.