Andrew St. Clair

A couple of weeks after I shot Lee Fields & The Expressions at Bowery Ballroom I saw Tennessee Thomas hanging out in the bar downstairs. Tennessee is the drummer of The Like, whose last album ‘Release Me’, saw the band shift into a 1960’s style complete with brit-pop guitar, hand claps, and 60’s style girl group vocals. Easily one of my favorite albums last year. I asked her when they were playing NYC next and she said they didn’t have anything coming up. Damn.

So, when I woke up early on Saturday, I checked my Twitter feed to find that @ILoveTheLike were playing a Fashion Week day party for Rachel Antonoff and had posted a link to an invite. I quickly RSVPed and got my gear ready. I could go on about issues I had with the train on Saturday, but I won’t. Regardless, I was running much later than I wanted to.

I ran from the subway to the gym because press check in for The Like was at 2 and the event ended at 2:30. That, compounded with the warmness of the gymnasium, made me want to jump in a swimming pool to cool down.

The theme of the party was ‘The Dance’. Complete with streamers, balloons, and a bunch of cute teens scattered around the gym posing for the camera showing off cute tights and shoes designed by Ms. Antonoff. The Like sounded pretty good considering they were playing in a High School gym. They played the majority of ‘Release me’ and as a bonus, a cover of ‘Will You Still Love Me’. I <3 them so much. Tennessee is also really good about smiling at me when I shoot her playing the drums.

Afterwards, I chatted with the band who, as it turns out, had played for about 3 hours during the day-party and actually repeated their tunes a couple of times. Bassist Laura Geronimo told me that she didn’t get a chance to eat before the gig. When I asked frontwoman Elizabeth ‘Z’ Berg if she had eaten, she replied “Of course not. It’s Fashion Week.” Fair enough, Z. Fair enough.