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The Walkmen provided some glimpses of the future on Tuesday night, playing a 17-song set to a pretty-full-but-not-sold-out 9:30 Club. However, if Tuesday's set served as an indicator as to the band's songwriting direction, then they haven't quite made their mind up yet. The word "boozy" has been used to describe the band's sound in the past, but "boozy" only buys you a finite line of credit. Their most recent work has showcased multiple divergent influences. 2006's A Hundred Miles Off (which we interviewed them about at the time) brought in horns and some different strokes of the punk and classic rock that had made up their earlier work, while 2008's You & Me brought a more soulful sound, making singer Hamilton Leithauser sound like an age-old indie-rock crooner.
The set featured several new songs, and Leithauser noted that the band has been busy writing a few times during the set. The set opener, referred to around the web as "The Sky Above," was a mid-tempo number that kept Leithauser's voice mid-range. Some slide guitar on the eventual recording might be a good fit, if they're soliciting opinions. Another new song, featuring the lines "Is this what you meant when you told me to piss off?" and "what's mine is yours and what's yours is yours, go figure" was reminiscent of "This Job is Killing Me" and "Always After You" from A Hundred Miles Off. The band threw in a slower, quiet new song later in the set that had the crowd marveling at the vocal range that Leithauser has developed.
"The Sky Above" led into "In the New Year," which resulted in a mid-song ovation when the "how" in "that's how it ends" during the first chorus was held by Leithauser for a few more bars than the recorded version. The setlist took heavily from You & Me, featuring "Postcards from Italy Tiny Islands," "Donde Esta la Playa," "I Lost You," and a back-to-back-to-back string of "Canadian Girl," "Red Moon," and "On the Water" (which inexplicably had a muddy distortion on the guitar during the opening bars rather the quiet clean guitar on the record). The hits were checked off as well, with a slow version of "Little House of Savages" early on, an overlapping horn solo extravaganza during the outro of "Louisiana", and crowd-pleaser "The Rat" during the encore producing the lone singalong moment during the entire 17-song set.
Kudos go to The Walkmen's soundman who provided one of the best mixes I've heard at 9:30, a welcome change from the usual drum-and-bass barrage. The keys/organs were right there during "In the New Year" and "Thinking of a Dream I Had." The horns blended perfectly into softer numbers like "Red Moon" and weren't overpowering on "Louisiana" or "I Lost You." There wasn't a critical melody absent in the mix.
Opener Here We Go Magic, whom we interviewed in June, warmed up the crowd with new material and songs from their eponymous debut. The album opener "Only Pieces" was transformed in the live setting to a slow-building jam that grabbed everyone's attention once the bass kicked on a few minutes in. The set closed with standout tracks "Fangela" and "Tunnelvision," the latter of which devolved into noise a little too quickly before the song had a chance to play out. The newer songs showed more structure than the material on the first album, so it will be interesting to see what the band does next.
Walkmen setlist: New Song (The Sky Above)/In the New Year/Little House of Savages/New song ("What's mine is yours")/Unknown/Louisiana/Postcards from Italy Tiny Islands/New song ("Pull a blanket over my eyes")/Canadian Girl/Red Moon/On the Water/Thinking of a Dream I Had/Unknown//All the Hands and the Cook/I Lost You/The Rat/Donde Esta la Playa
(Ed. Note: Thanks to commenter Just Jack for catching the title of "Postcards from Tiny Islands.")
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"Postcards from Tiny Islands"
True... "Postcards from Italy" is a Beirut song.
Also, I thought the levels on the wood block were a little low, but then again, it's a wood block. Great show though. Hamilton really knows how to belt it.
Yup, got mixed up with the Beirut song. It's fixed now.
I thought The Walkmen put on a great show, and you're right, the sound was amazing. They played a pretty mellow show this time, which was actually really nice. Loved the horns.
Sadly, the same cannot be said for Here We Go Magic. I was excited to see them, yet completely disappointed to find that they were not nearly as good as I thought. Their sound man should be shot. That or they are not a very good band after all.
i wish there was some way to get decent sound at every show at 9:30...
Sure wish they had played a little more from their debut "Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me...". I guess that's the cost of a successful band. (Felt the same at a Belle and Sebastian show a few years ago.)
Well they didn't have their rickety old piano in tow, and I think they need that to play most if not all of the songs on "Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone." All of their more recent albums use the organ instead.