The Pains of Being Pure at Heart played Webster Hall

Hot off the release of their great sophomore album, Belong, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart wrapped up their tour with a show in their hometown of New York City. Hitting the stage precisely at 9:00, the Pains ripped through "Belong" and a heavy blend of old and new songs. While the first three songs started off a little slow, the band gained momentum as the night progressed. Despite being plagued by a terrible sound system, TPOBPAH were still able to achieve the heavy feedback and distorted guitar sounds that would have made them a perfect fit on any Creation or Rough Trade box set. The striking alternative guitar sounds of new tracks "Strange" "The Body" and "My Terrible Friend", were met with great energy from the band and early dream-pop style numbers "Stay Alive" and "This Love is Fucking Right" maintained the perfect balance of styles that make this band great. Despite an incredibly short set (the band finished the encore at 9:58) the band really seemed to be enjoying themselves amongst their hometown friends. Kip Berman kicked off the encore with a solo electric rendition of the first song the band ever wrote before they whipped through two more songs and ended the night with their self titled song and chanted away "we will never die / we will never die" stating that this band has just shown up on the scene and will be around for a while.