Show Review: Cab Ellis, Native Sun, Torture and the Desert Spiders at Bowery Ballroom, NYC.
January 9th, 2026.
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“I’m embarrassing her” -Mother taking pictures of her daughter
January 10th, 2026
We’ve clawed and crawled into dozens of venues across New York City, but never Bowery Ballroom until last night. It was a special occasion, for the rocking septet Cab Ellis had sold out the 600 cap room. With support from Native Sun and Torture and the Desert Spiders, the floor, the balcony, and the basement were jam packed for an evening of laughing, thrashing, and dancing. Our memory is soaked and hazy but here’s what we recall.
The power trio of Torture and the Desert Spiders were spaced a dramatic distance apart from each other on the rooms spacious stage. Slow colored spotlights throbbed overhead, casting down abductive beams through a soft haze as Tortue sang with a crackling rasp that tightened into a powerful siren at will. We said hello later on in the evening and they reminded us of their ongoing residency Torture Tuesdays that they host at Baker Falls. Check it out!
Native Sun brought with them a scorching heat wave of blistering Rock and Roll. They felt like a hybrid plant spliced together from Oasis, Green Day, and The Ramones. It was fast, it was thick, it was loud. The pit was bouncing and whipsawing. The final third of their set cranked the energy to 11, we got in on the mosh action and had to dump a cup of water on ourselves afterwards to cool off. It was 300mg of riff caffeine, electric raspberry flavored.
We’d never seen Cab Ellis before. We didn’t know they were more than halfway to a baker's dozen. Three guitars, bass, saxophone, trumpet, and drums. Something about this dynamic made their set blend itself into the audience, like the whole room was the performance. We were upstairs in the Mezzanine and to be honest, weren’t really understanding the vibe. So we crawled back downstairs and into the center pit. In that instant they played a song whose words cut straight to the center of our heart, describing a feeling we had been wrestling with that was so new, we were struggling to articulate it to ourselves. For the rest of the set, everyone in the room seemed like they were Cab Ellis.
There was a unique New Year energy to the night, a buoyancy not unlike the freshly nostalgic term “millenial optimism”. Discussions of resolutions, hopes, and goals were frequent. Cab Ellis, Native Sun, and Torture and the Desert Spiders had us in good hands, now its up to us to commit to the aspirations our whiskers dreamed up for this year. If you missed the show, connect with these groups on social media and be there next time. See you around, Rrrat Pack.
| Keywords: | New York City | Cab Ellis | Native Sun | Torture and the Desert Spiders | Bowery Ballroom |
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