Photos / Review / Interview: Counterfeit in Brooklyn, New York

Who: Counterfeit, dubé

Where: Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NY

When: May 1, 2018

On May 1^st, Counterfeit brought their first North American tour to Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, New York. Fans got there early to pack the room, ready for the night to start.

Canadian indie grunge band dubé opened up the show. They were a high-energy act that got the crowd moving. They’re currently promoting their single, “Stoned Love.” This is definitely a Canadian band, as guitarist Liam Dubé used a homemade guitar made out of a hockey stick.

At about 9:15, Counterfeit finally took the stage. They immediately launched into “As Yet Untitled,” and everybody began singing along. The band had so much energy when performing, and they’re definitely one that you want to watch every second of. During “Letters To The Lost,” lead singer Jamie Campbell Bower had the crowd make a circle for him to perform in. For a few more songs, Sam Bower joined him while the audience moshed around them. Instead of going back on stage, Sam performed while sitting on the shoulders of somebody in the crowd. It seemed like they spent the majority of their time in the crowd, instead of on the stage. Their set included two new songs, “Paralyzed” and “1144,” giving fans a taste of what is to come from their upcoming second album. Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end, and so did this show. Counterfeit closed the show with “Enough,” and both the band and everybody in the audience gave it their all.

Before the show, we were able to sit down and talk to Jamie and Sam for a quick interview. You can check it out below.

CC: So can you start off by introducing yourself and saying what you do in the band?

Sam: Oh yeah cool, hi my name is Sam and I play guitar in Counterfeit.

Jamie: Hello my name is Jamie and I play guitar and I sing in Counterfeit.

CC: So your first North American tour started last week. So far, how have the shows here compared to the shows you’ve played in Europe?

J: The shows have been sick, like we started off in Austin, right? Yeah that was a party, Texas is always a party, and then Michigan, which was just wild like, you know, you turn up to some of these venues and you’re like “I don’t know how tonight’s gonna go. It could go really badly.” Every night it just keeps like blowing up, so yeah we’re stoked.

CC: You recently launched a PledgeMusic campaign for your second album. Tell us more about that

S: So we kind of went to go and do the Pledge. I think for me the way I see it is that we, you know, when we get up on stage, we have such a connection with our fans, and we rely on our fans for so much and they’re such a big part of what we do, that it almost feels, in the current day, it almost feels weird that you just completely disconnect those two things to go and do a record, and so I think in this way it gives us a chance to, I guess, for our fans, to be a part of that process as we go along, almost in the same sense that when we go and do it live, it’s there. So for me, I think that’s a really big, important part of it, and what makes me feel really good about it. But the response has been phenomenal.

J: Yeah the response has been phenomenal.

S: The response has been incredible so far. But yeah you can get an Access Pass and get exclusive stuff that we’ll put up and opportunities, basically to-

J: -to come on in.

S: -to come on in.

J: To share this experience together.

CC: While you’re here, you have a couple of festivals coming up. What are the difference between a club show and a festival, for both you guys and the fans?

J: Well, we’ll always go out and go out and play a festival show like we’re playing a headlining live show, like at a club. But for us as a band, the festival experience is, you feel this slightly more terror, if I’m honest, like you’re going out there and you’re playing in front of a crowd that doesn’t know who the fuck you are. Our show is abrasive, in some way, shape, or form, so I never know how that’s gonna go down. I actually spoke to Frank Carter, of the Rattlesnakes, we were doing a festival in Europe, it was like our first like heavy metal festival, and I saw Frank backstage, and I was like “Frank, what the fuck am I gonna do, this is terrifying.” And he was like “no mate, just go out there and do the fucking show that you’re always gonna do, and they’ll dig it. Like if you show fear, then they’re gonna fucking have you.” So that’s what we do. We go out there and we play it. But yeah it’s terrifying.

CC: What are your musical influences?

J: Varies.

S: Various. It stretches so far. Like we grew up kind of listening to music, a lot of music, coming to score, and our parents were big music fans, so there was a lot of Mötley Crüe, a lot of kind of Guns N’ Roses, that stuff. A lot of stuff from our kind of local scene growing up, kind of bands like Hundred Reasons, and people like that-

J: Reuben

S: -and Reuben, and bands that I hear like that, it really inspires.

J: It does. I mean, I think, for Counterfeit, the UK punk scene was a huge inspiration in what we do, bands like Gallows, absolutely like, just inspired us. But then also, you know, Manson, and Trent Reznor, and all of those guys, who kind of shaped rock as we know it now, you know those are the guys that I love and I love them because of the way that they sound, not because of like the message or anything like that, I just love the way that the music sounds. It sounds so thick, it sounds so full, and it just sounds gnarly, like it’s gonna fucking rip your head off, and that’s what I’m looking for when I’m, you know, searching for inspiration. But it’s so raw and it’s so varied.

CC: What’s your dream tour or festival line up?

J: Foo Fighters, Biffy Clyro, Counterfeit, Architects, Iggy Pop.

S: Yeah.

J: Even now.

S: Maybe Alice Cooper.

J: Alice Cooper.

S: That’d be pretty sick as well.

J: There you go.

S: That’s a great show.

CC: What is the one band you wished that you had the chance to see live?

S: (To Jamie) I never got to see Michael Jackson, you did. You did, and I never got to see him, and I was supposed to go and see him on you know, very, unfortunately, one of his last shows.

J: Nirvana.

CC: What’s something odd you’ve seen about yourself or your band online, if anything?

J: I saw something once saying that I died. That was interesting. I haven’t died, not yet.

CC: After this tour wraps up, what’s next for you all?

J: The album. Going in and making the album, getting locked in and getting angry with each other. Rouse.

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Post and photos by Anna Rhodes

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