JAMIE SMITH

FREQUENCY
The XX Interview

The summer has begun to die, and it's sweaty and smokey outside Piano's on Ludlow and Stanton. We have collected a small mass of dazed twenty-somethings - recent college grads, friends from home, friends from work - looking for a cheap Stella and a chance to see some Londoners who call themselves The XX. Neither of these desires are to be fulfilled. The pints are a good eight dollars with tip, and the show is so over capacity that entry doesn't even seem worth the flirting and persistence it would take to sway the doorman. We resign to a table in the front of the venue, with a view of Ludlow ahead.