Leisure Cruise at the Highline Ballroom

Leisure Cruise debut performance at the Highline Ballroom

Electronic synth-pop music is alive and well in NYC.  Leisure Cruise had their debut performance at the Highline Ballroom last night, playing a featured set before European pop sensation Gala, and they totally crushed it. I was there to catch all of the action, and you can check out the rest the photos from my gallery here.

A collaboration between Leah Siegel of Firehorse and Dave Hodge of Canada's Broken Social Scene, Leisure Cruise conjures, in their own words, "the music of a John Hughes film if it had been written by Bowie, remixed by Johnny Jewel, and fronted by a female Prince." Supporting them onstage were Aaron Kinsley-Brook on drums and Steven Elliot on guitar, and the four of them played an incredibly tight set, particularly for a band making it's debut performance.

Leah Siegel of Leisure Cruise performs at the Highline Ballroom

Jon Morris of The Windmill Factory provided the production design for the show, following a hectic week flying back and forth from LA as he was working with Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor for their Grammy performance (You can check out that performance here). I particularly enjoyed the stunning projections and video created by Matt O'Hare and Josh Higgason, which really matched each song well and took the production values of the show to another level. 

Dave Hodge

The performance was was a fast-paced, high-energy thirty-seven minutes that got the crowd the dancing and definitely wanting more from Leisure Cruise, who will release their debut album on May 6th. Until then, you can listen to their single, Sailing, right here:

You can check out the rest of my photos from the night by following this link: http://bit.ly/L7reB0