Newborn Bring High-Voltage Guitar-Driven Tunefulness to the Mercury This Saturday Night
by delarue
If Metallica was a Coney Island High band (you have to go back to the late 90s to get the reference), they’d be Newborn. Hearing the power trio – who happen to call the real Brooklyn Coney Island their home – playing Broken Virgo, you’d think that they’re a metal band at heart. The song is a big stadium anthem, an interesting mix of what could be latin rock (Caifanes at their early 90s peak, maybe) with Baba Yaga fanning the flames from behind her Russian peasant broom. The band name sounds suspiciously like a pun that doesn’t translate from what it means in the old country – that, or just plain old sarcasm. They’re playing this Saturday night, Jan 31 at 10 at the Mercury for $10 if you get tickets in advance (they sell them there from 5-7 PM Monday through Friday).
With Uma, the second track at their soundcloud page, they tease you with what seems like a ballad but then they segue into what’s essentially The Passenger by Iggy Pop – ok, if you’re going to rip somebody off, you could do a lot worse. The third track there is Pulse, another teaser: for a second: you think you’re getting 80s hair-metal until guitarist Allen James kicks in with yet another tasty, brooding, allusively chromatic solo. Rhythm guitarist Eric Ross and drummer Blake Suben give him a roaring backdrop for the pyrotechnics. They’ve working on an ep lately and they sound like they kick out the jams live.
New York Music Daily 