CMJ Festival takes over New York and Brooklyn for five days every year, but it only took one day and two performances for Suuns to take over the festival. Apparently the tasty soul food and pies at Pies N’ Thighs is the perfect fuel for dark drone electro-pop (I should have known something brilliant was in the works when the guys got all Popeyed up, devouring heaping plates of creamed spinach). Suuns started the evening with a set at the Brooklyn Vegan showcase at Music Hall of Williamsburg where apparently hipsters were actually dancing (!) to their set. Photos of the performance can be seen HERE.
From there Suuns headed into New York for a late night set at Piano’s where they looked downright deadly under a wash of murderous red light. They performed with a supreme intensity that brought the crowd to a fever pitch. After witnessing this performance Jon Pareles of the New York Times called Suuns “Drone Scholars” continuing, “They can let a chord ballon into psychedelic meditation (abetted by a guest saxophone honker), work a drone riff into a dance beat, hurl one at hardcore speed for a intense one-minute song, or peck at it with the obsessiveness of a kraut-rock band… there was rigorous strategy behind every gorgeous onslaught” (read the full review HERE). NPR was in the house too, and captured a little video of the set which you can check out above.