Albert Hammond Jr, w/ Walking Shapes at the Turf Club, St Paul (03 November 2015)

Walking Shapes

New York's Walking Shapes opened up the show with a 40-min set.
The five-piece band, featuring singer/guitarist Nathaniel Hoho, guitarist (and sometime violinist) Jesse Kotansky, keys Jacob Generalli, bassist Dan Krysa, and drummer Christopher Heinz, played some selections from their debut album Taka Come On, including "Measure for Measure" (which Hoho said was a song about "Tacos") and the highlight of their set: "(No) Feel Good", which required the audience to help sing back "hey hey hey" and clapping and yelling.

Song not on their album was "Horse", taken from their Mixtape (Volume 1) compilation album. As they started their song, Hoho paused for a second and said that their their van almost flipped over driving into St Paul… and then without a beat, continued on singing the song.

Walking Shapes' album Taka Come On is out now, a deluxe edition was released earlier this year via No Shame Records.

As we have previously mentioned, if you love The Strokes, you'll love Albert Hammond Jr., as their music and songwriting style is very similar. Personally, I feel the only difference is that Hammond Jr's songs does not feature Julian Casablancas' vocals.

Turnout to the show was incredibly good for a Tuesday, with most fans there on the strength of Hammond Jr's solo material, not just his work with the Strokes. Not that anyone was expecting Hammond Jr. to play the classic Strokes songs, as he is known to keep the two projects separated. This was strictly an Albert Hammond Jr. show, not the Strokes.

Hammarsing Kharhmar

I think the most interesting thing about Hammond Jr's current band is that it featured guitarist/backup vocalist Hammarsing Kharhmar. Kharhmar is no stranger as singer and frontman of Mon Khmer, so he took charge, singing on songs like "101".

Hammond Jr. played almost everything from his latest Momentary Masters, including his single "Born Slippy" and set closer, "Side Boob".

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