Big Pink Make Big Noise in the Big Apple

It felt a little redundant when Big Pink frontman Robbie Furze took the stage Thursday night at New York's Bowery Ballroom wearing a Jesus and Mary Chain T-shirt. Maybe that's why the singer and guitarist opted for the bicep-bearing cutoff look -- so that no one could accuse him of literally wearing his influences on his sleeves.

Playing to a packed house, Furze and partner Milo Cordell, the man responsible for twisting the knobs on the Big Pink's myriad electronic gadgets, dropped hard dance beats and dialed in heavy-duty guitar fuzz, punching up selections from their stellar debut, 'A Brief History of Love.'

What the London duo actually delivered was a brief history of late-'80s and early-'90s British rock. The Jesus and Mary Chain comparison was both apt and obvious -- from the opening 'Too Young to Love,' Furze employed monstrous guitar feedback reminiscent of the 'Psychocandy' album -- the artwork for which graced his T-shirt -- but the Big Pink draws from a variety of other sources. Cordell's canned beats, bolstered by the cymbal smashes of live drummer Akiko Matsuura, were at turns industrial-metal intense and Stone Roses sprightly, inviting neither dancing nor moshing, just appreciative head-nodding.

While capable of churning up big, mean sounds, the Big Pink also excels at songs like 'Velvet,' four gorgeous minutes of simmering shoegaze malaise. The mid-tempo standout 'Crystal Visions,' likewise, gave Furze and bassist Leopold Ross a break from doubling over and strumming their instruments as intensely and near to the floor as possible, as both musicians did throughout the show.

The Big Pink closed with its best-known tune, 'Dominos,' an ace sing-along and strong candidate for single of the year. In Furze's lyrics, girls are said to "fall like dominos," though the only tumbling that took place Thursday occurred on Matsuura's drum riser, where the petite percussionist finished the song by kicking over her bass drum, ensuring there would be no encore.