After thoroughly enjoying last summer's set at Webster Hall, I was pumped to see Liars not once but twice this past weekend. The first show was in the Met's Temple of Dendur, which is about as epic as a setting gets. The band literally played amongst the ruins of the monument, built in 15 BC by Petronius, Roman governor of Egypt and relocated to the museum's Sackler Wing in 1978 after being gifted to the United States to save it from flooding created by the Aswan Dam. The acoustics were either awesome or jarringly echoic depending on where you were standing, and where you were standing depended on gallery officials adhering to fire codes, but hey. The trippy projections flashing behind Angus Andrew and company were probably more than twenty feet wide and plenty enthralling if your vantage point was less-than ideal for watching the band.

Liars in the Temple of Dendur. The following night, Liars visited (le) poisson rouge for a show that by then was starting to seem like it had been cursed by King Tut himself. First, the venue changed from Brooklyn's Masonic Temple for unspecified reasons. Scheduled openers Lower Dens dropped off the bill around the time the venue change was announced. Doldrums stepped up to occupy the opening spot but were foiled by the theft of Airick Woodhead's laptop and passport, so the Toronto band never made it to Brooklyn, and Liars took the stage promptly at 8:30. liarslpr

Both sets included songs from WIXIW, Liars most-recent (and most electronic) release. Considering that they'd already toured in support of the record, it was surprising they were doing these shows at all; as it turns out, the purpose of both was to debut all-new material. The new songs are, once again, heavy on the electronics and driven by pounding beats, but possess a darkness and urgency not unlike the mood of 2004's witch-worshipping classic They Were Wrong, So We Drowned. The only actual foray into that material was during the encore at LPR, which ended with crowd pleaser "Broken Witch". There were no encores at the Met so for those who, like myself, had attended both, it felt like a treat. You can watch a video for "Who Is The Hunter" (from WIXIW) here. Below, check out video of a new song, which according to their somewhat cryptic handwritten setlist might be called something like "Can't Hear". It's far more relaxed and sparse than some of the other new stuff they played, lest ye naysayers worry Liars are losing their edge. The fact that Angus Andrew is pushing forty at this point doesn't seem to be slowing him down at all. They'll be playing MoMA PS1's Warm Up this season on August 31st. [jwplayer config="AF01 YT" mediaid="2649"]

Liars Bring New Songs To NYC