The Young Knives March 21st Harper's Ferry

When The Young Knives originally planned to come to Boston they sheduled to play Great Scott, which I think my blogs have made clear I love as a venue. Small, intimate, cozy and decent sound and I love rubbing shoulders with the band at the bar. Instead we got them at Harper's Ferry which quite frankly sucks as a venue - cavernous, cold and the sound was appalling.
The Young Knives wer eof course screwed by the visa situation, as were many bands, but still persevered and got here - Damn you George Bush. How can anyone think that these guys have any issues?
We talked to both Henry and Houseof Lords (Tom) at the NME BBQ at SXSW and they seemed genuinely friendly talking about visas, Boston amongst other things. We bumped into them a couple of times around SXSW although we didnt see them play again (they put on a nice show at the BBQ).
Grabbing a bite to eat and a drink before the show we bumped into them again and they initiated conversations - these are down to earth guys who work their butts off to get their music out there.

We got there in time to see Blanks and some othe band get off stage and waited for Protokoll. We have seen Protokoll many times but this was by far their worst performance, not sure if this was by design (please no!) or just bad mixing. It was Ben's last show and the frustration and anger on stage was palpable but not productive. The sounds were muddy and little of Jose's distinctive vocal could be heard. Nasty, muddled and harsh - if this were the first time I were seeing Protokoll I would not go see them again. Hey guys pull it together and make the decent music you can when things are good.
The Young Knives played for an hour and the sound was better (though not perfect the sound guy sucked).
Setlist
Enjoyed their tracks, loved hearing the new song, the banter and generally seeing thwm do a decent length set.
People do yourself a favor and buy this CD.