Friends @ Kung Fu Necktie.

Text by Brittany Thomas. Images by Hillary Petrozziello.

A little rain didn’t stop the coolest friends you haven’t met yet  (Friends, the band, that is) from coaxing the unusually somber Kung Fu Necktie crowd into a full-on, spontaneous dance party last Wednesday night.

Front-woman Samantha Urbani (right) jumped into a 2XL leopard-print tall T she found in the venue’s basement and took the stage psyched as ever despite the lack of visible audience enthusiasm.

The show was the second one they’ve played in the U.S. since their return to the motherland from their two-day stint at Amsterdam’s “London Calling” music  festival where they played for thousands of people “who probably had no idea who we were,” said keys/guitar/bass player Nikki Shapiro. “It wasn’t a big deal though. We partied. Of course. Amsterdam.  It was awesome.”

Having gone from playing a massive crowd in the biggest party town in the world to performing for what started out as a group of people small enough to fit into their tour van, Friends didn’t seem to offer anything but their best. They had such a blast dancing their asses off on stage that they were able to contagiously lure in every last straggler in the bar until everyone was cheering for an encore.

To close the show, Leslie Hann, one of the baddest female bass players in the indie scene right now, laid out her killer bass line for Friends’ most recent single, “I’m His Girl,” as Sam jumped off the stage and seduced the crowd into dancified submission.

Leslie, Sam and Nikki plus drummer Oliver Duncan and percussion/keys/guitar player Matthew Molnar are Friends, and they’re the most unpretentious, high-energy group of talented folks to come out of Brooklyn (at least since that whole scene got a bad name).

They’ll go on to continue their three week tour with the band Ganglians until they make their way back to Bushwick to regroup. From there they’ll ship off to London to work on some recordings with their label [Lucky Number Records] and then off to Europe to tour for two weeks again.

For now you can get addicted to their singles over on their bandcamp, but be on the lookout for the release of their full LP coming soon.