R.I.P. Luxury Flats

(photo by heather williams)
Without any fanfare and very little warning, Hudson, NY’s The Luxury Flats have decided to stop playing music together. A MySpace blog post on May 1st simply states,

hey friends. we are calling it a day. thanks for all the support. hope to see you at one of our final hoorahs! hugs and kisses…mikey

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend one of the three shows (May 1-3) that were the “final hoorahs”. Luckily Heather Williams was able to capture a few images of their last hometown show to share with those who missed it.

My first Lux Flats experience was through my friend Jamie who tugged my sleeve one night at Valentine’s and introduced me to her friend Dammy. One of them handed me a long, skinny flyer with colorful elephants drawn on it announcing very modestly that The Luxury Flats would be playing their first show in Albany the following Thursday night. The flyer was enough to get me there and I arrived with enough time to catch a TON of gear onstage downstairs at the club, including a supplemental PA which was there to amplify this crazy, oversized electric keyboard. While a little rough around the edges, I remember the set being exciting and full of a new blood that I hadn’t heard in a long time, if ever in the Capitol Region. They had this certain “boogie” about them - a specific rhythm that stuck around through all the songs. Like Small Axe, you could just tell that they spent hours and hours and hours together making music and living in their own world only to emerge here and there to play shows for people who were living very different lives.

Since that first night, I probably witnessed the band six or seven more times — each time was variably different. Some nights were an all out rock assault, some nights were jangly, stripped down acoustic nights, sometimes part of the set would see the rock and the rest jangle; you never knew what to expect.

Thanks to Dammy, Mikey, Joe T and Joe V for keeping everyone guessing and making compelling music. I hope there is more to come from each of you somehow…