The hardest thing to envision when listening to a Memory Tapes song and the easiest thing to realize when meeting Memory Tapes is that, really, Memory Tapes is just a plain-spoken guy from South Jersey. Dayve Hawk has recorded a mysterious brand of music under a number of different names over the years and Memory Tapes is now his preferred handle (an amalgam of previous names Weird Tapes and Memory Cassettes). Hawk produces all of his own music and the dense, hazy soundscapes of his recent album "Seek Magic"--Pitchfork described it as "something of an inhabitable universe"--are more evocative of emotions and memories than they are of actual musical instruments. It's difficult to imagine the sound being transferred to a stage, maybe most difficult for Hawk himself.

"When I made the album, I had no intention of touring," Hawk explained, hours before he was to hit the stage at the Tribeca Grand Hotel on a recent Saturday night. When the album garnered rave reviews and public affection, touring became a necessary, if unexpected, extension of Hawk's musicianship. "There’s only so many bellwether bedroom jams you can release from a Philadelphia fortress of solitude before public appearances will be demanded," Stereogum noted before Hawk was set to debut his live Memory Tapes set in Manchester, England this January.

While a swarm of Tribeca Grand staffmembers frantically maneuvered A/V equipment and bar supplies around a performance space just off of the hotel's lounge, Hawk rolled up in a compact SUV packed with equipment. Matt Maraldo--who Hawk introduced offhandedly as "my best friend"--is Hawk's percussion section in live performances and, once the equipment had been rolled in on a bellhop cart, the two prepared for the night's show with a quiet efficiency.

Moments before the concert, as a couple of black-clad bartenders readied beer bottles for the throng of people rustling outside, Hawk confided, "Most of the shows we've played have been sold out which really blows my mind because in my normal life I don't see very many signs that people have ever heard the record."

Note: a special thanks to Jack Shanahan for his exceptional camerawork on this video.