The Morning Benders at SOhO

On Thursday night, for the first time in nearly four months, the Morning Benders played live music. If the band was rusty after an extended stint in the studio, the sold out crowd at SOhO never noticed it.

The fact the band was fresh out of the studio actually made the night more interesting; after opening with “Promises,” off last year’s Big Echo the Benders played an EP’s worth of new songs. The material is dense and laden with sound, filled with spacey keys and saturated drum beats. It sounds like a sleepless night in Brooklyn, where the band is now based; carefully constructed beauty drowned in ambient noise.

Although slow-tempo music can be challenging to listen to live, frontman Chris Chu kept the energy high. He used the intimate space of SOhO to his advantage, lassoing the mike over the crowd, touching fans hands, and talking to the audience between shows as if they were across the table at a local coffee shop. Right before the band played “Excuses,” the lead single off of Echo, Chu smiled sheepishly and whispered, “This is an old one. You guys might know it.” Within 30 seconds the entire place had its hands it in air, singing along to the da-da-da-da-dum of the song’s infectious chorus.