Israeli singer Ninet Tayeb is apparently a pretty big deal in her homeland, though she’s not really as well known to average North American audiences. That’s started to change a bit as Tayeb made some headlines recently when she filled in on lead vocals for Steven Wilson during the New York stop on his Hand. Cannot. Erase. tour. The ailing Porcupine Tree bandleader had lost his voice, but following the old showbiz motto that the show must go on, he handed over most of the vocal duties to harmony singer Tayeb and by all accounts, it sounds like she took to the task quite well. After seeing her perform a set during Brooklyn Vegan’s showcase Friday afternoon at Cheer Up Charlie’s, it’s easy to see why.
Tayeb is a talented performer with a big, bold rock ‘n roll voice and a persona to match. Some of her stuff, though still technically impressive, hewed a bit to close to an ’80s/’90s style rock sound and didn’t do much for me, but her song “Child” stood out with a bit more of a moody, atmospheric sound.
A different kind of atmosphere was provided by Vaadat Charigim (also from Israel), whose singer had a bit of a touch of Richard Butler or Robert Smith in his voice that matched the band’s classic shoegaze sound quite well. Vaadat Charigim had first caught my attention for having the distinction of being the first band I saw announcing that they were headed to Austin this year for SXSW. At the time, it kind of seemed like they were jumping the gun, but hey, it worked on me so kudos to them.