It says a lot about the impact of praise from the Internet, etc. that on their first national tour, BAND OF HORSES sold out both this show and the previous night’s show (at Bowery Ballroom) well in advance. The demand for them in the New York area was so strong, in fact, that a third show for the following evening, at the larger Warsaw, was added. And apparently they filled that place, too.
I’d been anticipating this show for months, since Everything All the Time is one of my favorite albums of the year so far. And I was curious if singer/guitarist BEN BRIDWELL and company could pull their sound – which is similar to other Sub Pop mainstays THE SHINS or maybe ROGUE WAVE, with a lot of reverb on the vocals and shinier-sounding guitar riffs – off live. Fortunately, the answer was a resounding “yes.”
Band of Horses played picture-perfect versions of virtually all the songs from the album, including the opener “The First Song,” a powerful and rousing version of album centerpiece “The Funeral” and two versions of “Wicked Gil.” The second version, played in the encore (after one new song), was slower and quieter.
Another highlight (or perhaps lowlight) of the set was their cover of the 1980 HALL AND OATES hit “You Make My Dreams.” I love the original version of this song, and am glad they didn’t emulate it, but rather tried to make it sound like one of their own songs. Yet I thought that Bridwell’s vocal delivery made it seem like he was distancing himself from the song, that he was perhaps being ‘ironic.’ Indeed, after this song was performed, I saw MT. EGYPT’s singer TRAVIS GRAVES go back to the merch table to joke with the person selling Band of Horses’ merch, mocking his own ‘hoo hoo’ harmonies. Whether this was self-evisceration of his JOHN OATES role in the cover or he was making fun of the song itself was unclear, but given indie rockers’ propensity for irony, it does make one wonder, and honestly left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. The thing is, if Bridwell had put more emotion into his vocal, they could’ve done a better version. Nevertheless, it seemed like it was all in good fun, and that has its virtues, too.
What left a worse taste in my mouth was the crowd. We were in the back, and, unfortunately since Band of Horses didn’t play very loudly, I heard people talking through their entire set, which was very annoying. It really makes me wonder why people go see bands if they don’t listen to the music. This had to be the most annoying crowd that I’ve seen since the BELLE AND SEBASTIAN/NEW PORNOGRAPHERS show at the Nokia Theatre back in March. Also, Bridwell’s stage remarks were quite odd. He seemed genuinely pleased to be playing to a room full of adoring fans (well except for the talkers, I guess), but I couldn’t tell if he was making fun of the audience’s adoration or genuinely taken aback.
Regardless, the most important thing is that in a live setting, the chiming majesty of Band of Horses’ brand of indie-pop was definitely impressive, despite these setbacks.
Openers Mt. Egypt played a rather dull and unimpressive set of NEIL YOUNG-influenced indie-rock.
The above pictures were swiped from Music Snobbery.
Discuss this review in The Big Takeover Forum
