Don't wear jeans when it's a billion degrees out, it makes seeing Lia Ices perform kind of impossible. Still, we tried Monday night when she premiered Simone Montemurno and Joanna Bovay's video for "Half Life" and played a brief set at the Journal Gallery for a bunch of intimidatingly cool people. Fanciness or not, the pleasures of Lia Ices and "Half Life" and its video are simple—plain piano, surprising accordion, sad singing, pretty girls in white lace doing synchronized dances. There is something warmly Amish happening here. For a more urbane take on "Half Life," watch Lia perform the song for FADER TV in an Upper West Side townhouse and, New York City, catch her tonight at Music Hall of Williamsburg with Juana Molina.
