Sleigh Bells Live At Brooklyn Steel, New York

The evening at Brooklyn Steel opened with the New York-based band, Sunflower Bean. They energized the crowd with their pop-rock drenched in noisy instrumentals. Lead singer, Julia Cumming had a voice that could not be ignored. Her Lita Ford, hard rock vocals demanded attention from the audience. After Sunflower Bean’s brief set, the crowd prepared themselves for Sleigh Bells by slinging back cans of PBR and dancing to the doo-wop playlist curated for the evening.

Sleigh Bells opened their set with “Blue Trash Mattress Fire” from their most recently released album Kid Kruschev. Loud guitar, heavy synth and thunderous drums poured out from the speakers. The crowd matched the intensity of Alexis Krauss as she stood over the audience and sang out to them. The energy and style of Sleigh Bells is part noise pop and part arena rock. Their song “Favorite Transgressions” pairs their dreamy electro-pop with Krauss’s feminine but authoritative vocals and makes it seem like this band could play to a small, indie audience or huge, headbanging crowd.

The setlist for the evening was made up of songs spanning their entire discography and made sure to satisfy every fans favorite cluster of songs from each of their albums. They performed “Demons” from Reign of Terror, “Riot Rhythm” from Treats, “I Can Only Stare” from Jessica Rabbit and “Bitter Rivals” from Bitter Rivals. But their staples “Crown on the Ground,” “Tell Em” and “Infinity Guitars” drew the biggest cheers. If there was one thing that matched the intensity of the performance and enthusiasm of the crowd, it was the light show that was paired with it. Strobe light enthusiasts would have rejoiced. The amount of lights timed perfectly with the beats of the music added to the fierceness of the performance and made the impact of the music more potent.

Since the release of their album in 2017, Sleigh Bells had been touring solidly and concertgoers would never have known this was the second to last show on the tour. The energy and intensity of the band drew the crowd in and did not release them until the last note of the encore was played.

Setlist:

1. Blue Trash Mattress Fire
2. Riot Rhythm
3. Favorite Transgressions
4. Tell Em
5. Comeback Kid
6. I Can Only Stare
7. It’s Just Us Now
8. Rainmaker
9. Bitter Rivals
10. Infinity Guitars
11. Demons
12. Rule Number One
13. Crown on the Ground

Encore:

14. And Saints
15. A/B Machines
16. Rill Rill