Last Sunday I flew home from Northern California just in time to make it to see NYC’s The Shivers play at Tangier in Los Feliz. I am so happy that I spent three hours trying to get on earlier flights to LAX, an hour driving frantically across town and thirty minutes watching the really awful 15 year old headdress-clad kid that opened for them – it was all well worth it.

The show was the last of three Los Angeles area shows on their West Coast Tour, and left them sandwiched between four much less memorable local bands. Because of this, their set was disappointingly short, but the band still managed to deliver a ridiculously intense – and dare I say fucking awesome – performance.

The Shivers are, primarily, Keith Zarriello and Jo Schornikow. The sound is something like Songs From a Room-era Leonard Cohen with thrice the intensity and wildly stripped down productions. Sunday night’s set consisted of only Jo on the keys and Keith standing with one foot on a tambourine and guitar in hand.  It was, quite honestly, all the instruments they needed to put on a phenomenal show. Both possess incredibly powerful voices and a commanding stage intimacy that immediately swallowed the room. The entire performance was so alarmingly genuine and potent. It left nothing to be desired (except an encore) and left me with an even better impression of the band than I had come in with (which is saying a lot).

If you are ever in NYC or happen across their next west coast tour I would urge you to see them live. If you’re not so lucky, I would urge you to visit their myspace page and give them a considerable listen.

Ashi