By M. Morales
Two tambourines shake. Keyboard kicks in. Then guitar, bass, and drums. The built-up intro from The Phenomenal Handclap Band was a nice way to start off the early 8pm evening at NYC's Terminal 5. At eight minutes into the set the first vocals from their second or third song were finally heard. The 8-piece New York based band, who was probably new to the Gossip crowd, got some people moving with their brand of soulful, rockin', disco tunes, and that set the mood for the night. As expected they got the crowd clapping their hands during the set. The band was dressed sharply and sounded cool without being pretentious, even though they call themselves phenomenal. This was something I appreciated. The big band could have easily put on an exaggerated, extravagant show, but didn't. With minimal between song banter or even vocals during the songs, it was obvious that this band was all about the music and bringing a soulful throwback '80's sound with some rock grooves added in here and there for good measure.
