San Francisco’s Enablers are more an amalgam of music and poetry than the average band. This distinction is forged primarily through the use of speech only loosely set in pattern with the music instead of sing-song verse.
In a live setting — in this case New York City’s Knitting Factory, at the Tap Bar — it’s the words that takes the forefront, thanks to the power of frontman Pete Simonelli. Forceful and engaging, he’s part storyteller, part actor, part preacher, part magician. Wildly gesticulating, crouching, jumping, thrusting his body across the stage in assorted ways, he’s impossible to take your eyes from. He occasionally jumps into the audience, not to be pawed at or worshiped, but as part of his experience. His grimy voice is bigger than his body, like a spirit that possesses him. It fills every crevice of the room.
Enablers, “Pauly’s Days in Cinema” (download)
