Rolling into Mike ‘N’ Molly’s last night, I knew very little about either Petunias or Purity Ring (I unfortunately missed the first band, Magical Beautiful). Purity Ring have made some noise on Pitchfork, and seem to generally have a good buzz about the two songs they’ve released thus far. Similarly, Petunias only have a few tunes to their name, although they’re admittedly from Champaign, not New York.
Petunias began the night with an aesthetically pleasing but awkward set. Their hynotic, repetitive post rock and pained vocals evoked a slightly louder version of Low. However, I had some issues with the extended periods of dead air that punctuated their set and killed the crowd, taking away from an otherwise great performance. With some more time spent honing their stage presence, these guys could turn into something really impressive live, as their music is bombastic and epic enough to never really sound bad when being played in front of a crowd.
Purity Ring took to the stage in a similarly inauspicious fashion, not aided by their stage backdrop blowing over every three minutes, until it was stabilized with a well-placed bucket of sand. However, they quickly won over the crowd due to Megan James’ vocals and enthusiasm. The addition of a deceptively simple light show consisting of three lights, strategically placed behind sheets and on mic stands, plus a solitary bass drum placed at head-level on a stand, added a sense of production value (or at least the appearance of effort) that the crowd ate up. By the middle of the set, a sizeable chunk of the audience was up and moving, always a good sign. Some of this may have been due to James violently banging the bass drum every so often, jolting the crowd at random intervals.
The band’s other member, Corin Roddick is clearly the instrumental architect of thte band, and his beats fit nicely into the current wave of instrumental hip-hop producers (Baths, Clams Casino) making 
woozy, syncopated beat music. When combined with James providing vocals for a spontaneous live-remix, the music was intoxicating. I’m sure anyone lucky enough to have been stoned at this show will be talking about it for a few weeks. I have to take a moment here to acknowledge the awesomely weird percussion instrument that he played in addition to working a table of effects and drum pads. A welded-together tree of brass piping and light-bulbs served as both didgeridoo for Roddick’s tidal bass and xylophone to punctuate his hazy instrumentals. By the time Purity Ring left the stage, it was clear that they had won over the crowd.