Live: Have a Nice Life Kills Music, Sounds Great in the Process

"NO EARPLUGS, MOTHERFUCKERS. ANYONE WEARING EARPLUGS GETS STOMPED," chimed a last.fm user named "D_W_B." Naturally, he was excited for Have a Nice Life's first show at the Stone in Alphabet City. 

The day of the show, the event had listed 62 attendees on last.fm, almost twice the number listed for the Magnetic Fields show on March 11, which is at a venue with about 20 times the capacity. And while the Have a Nice Life event has racked up over 200 "shouts" since December, The Magnetic Fields' have none. Though the bands do play quite different styles of music—The Magnetic Fields are synth/folk pop, Have a Nice Life a thick shoegaze blend with hints of industrial rock, black metal, drone rock, and even a bit of punk and new wave here and there. But the difference in attendee excitement is still impressive, especially considering that the show was Have a Nice Life's first ever.

The Stone itself is certainly a curious venue. Its website describes it as "a not-for-profit performance space dedicated to the EXPERIMENTAL and AVANT-GARDE." And Have a Nice Life can be considered "AVANT-GARDE"—they list as influences on their MySpace "the periodic 'starving times' of native Alaskans dependent on herds of migrant caribou" and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. But don't turn to their MySpace if you want a true taste of the music; according to the page, "OUR SONGS ARE TOO FUCKING BRUTAL FOR MYSPACE." It's all part of the band's "fuck everything," nihilistic aesthetic. Dan Barrett, one of the two regular members of Have a Nice Life and head of label Enemies List, tweeted "Let's kill music" two days before the show, reflecting the label's mantra that "the music industry is dying, that it should die, and that we should be the ones to kill it." The other regular member, Tim Macuga, "lives in the woods," according to the label's website.

The Stone doesn't list an address on their website, merely that it's "located at the corner of avenue C and 2nd street." That's probably the best description possible for its location; the door perfectly faces the intersection, not one street more than any other. Across East Second Street is a chain link- and barbed wire-surrounded lot filled with tarp-covered trash that would be like any other in the neighborhood were it not designated "Le Petit Versailles" by a New York City Department of Parks & Recreation sign. Rats dash from trashcan to trashcan on the sidewalk outside, which is littered with bottles and cans sheathed in brown paper bags. Fire trucks whiz by on Avenue C with sirens blaring, which are audible even from the inside while the band is playing. This is Manhattan at its grittiest, perfectly suited to housing the live translation of Have a Nice Life's heavy, home-recorded 2008 debut, "Deathconsciousness," which was described as "probably a perfect record" by music blogger Jared Dillon of Last Train to Cool and met with general praise from others in the music blogging community.

The venue's capacity is a mere 75 people, the timid ticket-taker at the entrance tells me. I'm forced against a wall because there are no more seats in what looks more like a corridor than a venue. The wall is the only one in the place that isn't just plain brick draped in black cloth; this one is filled with black-and-white photos of past performers, including recognizable faces like Lou Reed. The crowd is rather eclectic, being part metal and part scenester. There are just as many weird piercings and combat boots as there are peacoats and dark-rimmed glasses. The band stands at the far end of the hall, not elevated, surrounded by fans.

The show starts with a sample from the 1990 film "Jacob's Ladder," in which Tim Robbins' character is told that he has died. From there the band launches straight into the din of deep, distorted guitar and bass that keeps up throughout virtually the entire set. Barrett twists around and bangs his head as seems to sing his very life into the microphone while Will Barrett of the band Afterlives, Dan's brother and Have a Nice Life's live keyboardist, backs him up. The rest of the band chimes in from time to time, and while they never harmonize, their semi-synchronized shouts sound are almost cathartic in their sincerity. To say that the band was giving it their all for their first show would be a gross understatement.

By the time they hit the thumping bass of "Bloodhail" (arguably their most popular song) a few numbers into the set, they have the entire audience bobbing their heads with the rhythm of the echoey drum sample that seems to carry on with minor variations throughout most of the show. Shortly thereafter comes a brief lull in the action for the band to switch out some equipment, during which Dan discusses all the equipment they've broken over the previous few days and announces that "we are not a real band," seeming shocked by the completely unexpected popularity that "Deathconsciousness" brought them.

At the end of the show, Dan is winded. He can barely speak coherently enough to tell the audience that they've crafted a show-only EP, announcing (perhaps jokingly) that they would destroy all leftover copies so that it would be exclusive to that night. Keeping with the group's "do it yourself" attitude, the "Time of Land" EP is available on tape only. They then launch into the final song, which features all members shouting "we wish we were dead," and ends with Dan singing without a microphone. When all's done, his bandmates begin to take apart their equipment, while Dan collapses to the side of the stage. It seems he got his wish. 

-Spencer Bronson

Photo by Justin and Elise