As drummer and singer of the Vancouver collective Crack Cloud, Zach Choy is hard to take your eyes off. He’s the literal driving force of the band, an adept, muscular musician and magnetic performer. But if anyone’s going to draw your attention away it’s keyboardist and percussionist Aleem Khan, who attacked his bongos like he was trying to knock them off the stand and whipped his luxurious mane around with metal fury while playing keys. There was never a lack of things to watch at the band’s dynamic performance at Le Poisson Rouge show on Sunday night.
The LPR show wrapped up Crack Cloud’s first-ever Northeast run, which included a couple dates opening for Yves Tumor. This was a somewhat pared down lineup of the group, with Choy and Khan plus a bassist and two guitarists, one of whom is Choy’s brother, Will — when I saw them in Iceland last year there were eight of them — but Sunday’s show didn’t feel like you weren’t getting the full Crack Cloud experience. They were fantastic, and their distinctive mix of danceable post-punk, art rock and anthemic sing-alongs had the crowd going and singing along the whole time.
The show was in-the-round, with the band facing each other in a circle that made everything seem all the more dialed in. They also made good use of Le Poisson Rouge’s facilities. At the end of “Please Yourself,” one of the standouts from 2022’s Tough Baby, Khan left the stage and ran over to the venue’s nearby grand piano, where he finished the song with help from a cellist in dramatic style. A nice unexpected touch. There was no stage banter, apart from Choy thanking the crowd at one point, as Crack Cloud bashed their way through their hour-long set. Though the crowd clearly wanted an encore, they left the stage leaving everyone wanting more. Hopefully they’ll be back soon.
Check out video from the Le Poisson Rouge show below. Crack Cloud play Austin’s Levitation Festival at the end of October, and LA’s Substance fest in November.
