Now I love Natasha. . .beyond her penchant for tattooed, fixed-gear riding, under-employed 30 year-olds guys, she’s a great young lady. . .good head on her shoulders, lots of fun – and she LOVES The Beatles. So far so good, right? But her exceptional taste in music doesn’t necessarily extend beyond the lads from Liverpool – certainly not when it comes to contemporary music. In that case, her tastes tend toward a distortion-based line-up that features a couple of shoe-gazers wielding their Les Paul’s through an array of fx boxes, fronted by a devastatingly whiney singer (whining, I assume, about a recently broken heart or lack of attention from a parent and/or an unfair grade on a mid-term paper. . . .I don’t know – I inevitably can’t force myself to listen that closely to really pick up the lyrics). Net net – decidedly not my bag and far too common for anyone’s good.

So – when Natasha extended the invitation, we were both naturally a bit reticent.

But low and behold – melody. . .composition. . .witty, thoughtful lyrics. . . .three-part harmonies!?! Wait! Holy crap! Are we in a showcase club in downtown NYC? What a truly pleasant surprise The Swimmers turned out to be!

A cross between the countless pop/new-wavers of the early 80’s (“We Build To Love” brings to mind the Cure crossed with early REM) and late 60’s Brit-pop (“Heaven” recalls the Kinks), The Swimmers’ tunes were consistently infectious – and never redundant. It was truly a treat to enjoy a set of songs where each tune had it’s own unique identity rather than each song just being a re-hash of the previous one.

Each player was exceptional – and we all had a chance to chat briefly after the show. Good people to boot!