If Corporal shows are few, Less the Band performances are even rarer. Less the band formed in 2004, naming themselves after the fictional band at the center of playwright/writer/director Adam Rapp’s play “Finer Noble Gases” in which band members obliterate themselves over the course of an evening in an East Village apartment (modeled eerily after Rapp’s own digs). Rizzo, Beitzel, Paul Sparks (Mickey Dohl on Boardwalk Empire) and Obie-winning actor Michael Chernus assumed roles for the play and practiced for the play’s climax, writing a dozen songs before the show opened, continuing to play gigs after it closed. In every way tonights show is a family affair: members of both bands are friends and have worked on different productions of Rapp’s play. Shannon, who played bass with Rizzo, Beitzel and Dallas Roberts for a 2002 production, claims that he was “kicked out of the band”.

Less the Band have self-released 2 recordings (Bear and Robot, both available in ITunes). They have collaborated with artist Danica Novgorodoff on the graphic novel “A Late Freeze” In 2006 at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival the band had the opportunity to simultaneously perform “Finer Noble Gases” and open UK dates for My Morning Jacket. In 2008 Less the band composed Astroland, a theatricized rock concert that premiered at The Kitchen.


UK’s Whisperin’ and Hollerin’ wrote of LTB’s Bear, “much has been made of the post-punk revival lately, but Less The Band more accurately reflects the no-compromise edges of the genre’s original philosophy than many of today’s wanna-be’s. If science-fiction author Philip K. Dick had formed a rock band, it probably would’ve sounded like Less the Band.”

www.lesstheband.com