RRIICCEE - NYC 12/07/07

As I waited for seating to begin for RRIICCEE's NYC debut, I watched quietly, pretending to read a copy of "The Turn of the Screw", while two hipsters flirted with a pregnant girl who was far more Mia Farrow in "Rosemary's Baby" than Demi Moore on the cover of Vanity Fair. As the coffee shop portion of the venue, 45 Bleeker Street, began to fill, and I finished laughing at the group of 15-20 asian people having to check their cameras, the doors were opened and seating began.
After a half hour, Vincent Gallo, of Brown Bunny fame, Eric Erlandson of Hole fame, Nikolas Hass of famous sibling Lukas fame, and Rebecca Casabian of no paticular fame at all, came from behind the dark curtain and took their respective places. The first thing I noticed about the way the stage was set up was that there was no mic in the center of the stage. There was one to my left, pointed at the ground and one to my right in a similar position. Gallo took his place at the left-center stage mic, wearing a green springstein-esqe bandanna and a leather coat. Eric took the right-center, wearing a long pecoat-like blazer and no shoes. Nikolas came out with no shirt, showing a small tattoo of a heart on his left pectoral and wearing 1970s basketball short shorts and took his place on the edge of stage right. Rebecca came out in short shorts as well, but hers had black suspenders and she wore a shirt. She played the keyboard on the left edge of the stage.
As RRIICCEE began with a downtempo number, it seemed most people sat and watched Gallo as he sat and played a guitar, never looking at the audience, sometimes not even facing us. Throughout the performance, the songs switched from downtempo to harder rock and then even a hip hop drum beat. Gallo had three guitars, Eric, four, and they would routinely switch between their own guitars, but never playing each others. One would expect Haas to be the member who decided the direction of the songs as he had the power to control the tempo, but save one or two shining moments, Rebecca seemed to be the one in control for most of the performance. RRIICCEE, referred to heavily during my eavesdropping before they took the stage was widely considered "Vincent Gallo's New Band" and occassionally you could see him throwing looks to Haas or telling Rebecca something, to which her response always was "What?"
The non-structured format allowed for each musician to continue with the song until they felt like it was over. Sometimes Gallo would stop playing, but Eric would still be at the guitar or sampler, seeing the song through until he felt it met it's natural end.
Each musician rarely made even eye contact with the audience. Every now and then, we got a glance from Rebecca, but other than that, it was mostly Gallo on the floor, Eric with his back turned to the audience and Haas looking at Rebecca. Gallo with his reconisable stare, focused carefully at his instruments and was in full concentration so much so, he appeared modest. The abrasive personality that Gallo is so famous for having was no where to be found and the only words out of his mouth that he didn't sing were "Thank You" as RRIICCEE left the stage.
In the end, RRIICCEE's NYC performance proved to be very experimental and genuinely interesting. After the concert posters and clothing was sold, prices starting at $100. One could not help but feel that this was possibly a satire of today's concert scene and not a money making venture.
It was hard to gauge the audience's reaction during the performance, as is the nature of the venue, anyone who needs to use the bathroom has to walk in front of everyone so it provided a lot of commotion. Strangely enough it also allowed for one of the best moments of the night, when a decidedly sad instrumental was played by the band and a girl walked back from the bathroom, holding her sweater closed, looking like she just plopped out her abortion in the bathroom. It added an interesting context for the music and may have added something to the emotion rich songs that were played.
So the question is, does RRIICCEE work?
As I was herded out onto the street with the other harbingers of death for a cigarette, I caught the girl behind me humming the tune of the last song RRIICCEE played.