Headlights and The Love Language at the Bell House, Brooklyn, April 24

Last night my wife and I made our first visit to the Bell House, a night club and entertainment venue located in a former warehouse near Brooklyn's famous Gowanus Canal. We were hardly in the door when we were greeted by co-owner William Crane, a.k.a. Dick Swizzle. I told him we were there for the pre-nuptial party of our friends E.J. and Beth. He took us to where we got our hands stamped for free admission to the big room where the band The Love Language, from Wilmington, North Carolina, was playing. Their sound, compounded of R&B, country, and power-pop rock, was captivating, and (being a boomer) I was especially taken by their cover of Ricky Nelson's "Hello, Mary Lou", a less frenetic version of which you can hear on the band's MySpace page.

The headline act was Headlights, from Champaign, Illinois. Like TLL, this group draws on eclectic influences to produce a rich, energetic power pop sound. They have, however, even made an acoustic recording, with lovely harmonies, of the folk ballad "Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies", which you can hear here. The clip at the head of this post is of their encore from last night's performance, for which they invited TLL to join them on stage. The sound quality, I'm afraid, is not the best, partly because of the limitations of my little camera and partly because of the heavy reverberation in the cavernous room. Nevertheless, it captures some of the band's charismatic quality. You can hear recordings of Headlights on their MySpace page.

Update: Here's a clip of Headlights and The Love Language onstage together at the Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, Oregon, doing "Hello, Mary Lou":


The video is by secondstory. Thanks to Brett Sanderson of Headlights for the link.