Les Savy Fav's Tim Harrington Puts on Bizarre Fashion Show

The new Brooklyn, N.Y. home of the Knitting Factory opened with a dramatic bang Wednesday night, as hometown favorites Les Savy Fav performed a packed set of post-punk anthems. After comedian Hannibal Buress warmed up the crowd with jokes on Lil' Kim and Lil' Wayne, LSF frontman Tim Harrington appeared in a bizarre poncho and pointed hat, ready to inaugurate the relocated venue with a shower of sweat and beer.

Harrington is one of indie rock's most flamboyant performers. It doesn't hurt that he looks like a messianic Appalachian and is fond of flailing around bare-chested in the middle of a crowd. He opened the set wearing a black flak jacket, short shorts and an Italian motorcycle helmet, and proceeded to shed clothes from that point on. The band attacked older hits, like 'Yawn, Yawn, Yawn' -- with its exhortation to "get-get-get-get-get it on" -- and newer cuts from 2007's 'Let's Be Friends.'

While the other four band members played it serious, Harrington acted the happy fool, grinding the glass partition between the concert venue and the front bar, rubbing his nipples and showing off silly wigs, all the while proving he's one of the best screaming frontmen since the Pixies' Frank Black. The encore found Harrington donning what appeared to be a red shag rug and a feathered Native American headdress to perform 'Blackouts on Thursday,' which includes the lines "I'm going back to high school / Where I can make out like a cat," and 'Who Rocks the Party,' which played like a high-speed Andrew W.K. freak-out.

At a few points in the evening Harrington confessed into the microphone, "Too old for this s---." For the sake of his fans, we can only hope he was joking.