CMJ 2008, Day 3: Ebony Bones @ Hiro Ballroom

Published at 12:00 PM on October 27, 2008

By Sean Edgar, photos by Sean Edgar

After being denied the sold-out Crystal Castles show at Webster Hall and arriving too late to check out The Dears at Hiro Ballroom, I was in desperate need of some live entertainment. Fortuitously, a group of British festival goers told me to stick around for Hiro's after party with London's Ebony Bones, and I'm certainly glad I did.

If her hyperactive stage banter and faux-tribal dances weren't charming enough, Bones takes her name from a DC comic book character who has super strength and an invisible skin that bleeds cyanide. And her musical approach isn't any more grounded in reality than her name: Song titles like "Don't Fart On My Heart" and "My Baby Has ESP" are a good indication that attention spans and maturity have been left to less whimsical parties.

Ebony Bones' theatrical stage getup employed a DJ in a Zorro mask, two backup singers in dresses louder than Ebony's cockney croon and a guitarist wearing an elaborate, metallic head dress. The music represented a nice cross-breed of energetic pop and globalized electronica complete with rave whistles, not unlike other London acts The Go! Team and the now-retired (or not) M.I.A.

Bones is currently wrapping up her debut album, but if her tour schedule is any indication, we'll be exposed to more pastel dresses and uninhibited congo beats in the very near future.