In my experiences, when it comes to Sunday shows, it’s kind of hit and miss. Because it’s Sunday you never know how large or small the audience is going to be. At this particular Sunday night show at the Crocodile I was pleasantly surprised to see the venue about two thirds full by the time the opening act took to the stage. By the end of the first act, the Croc was nearly eighty percent full and it stayed that way almost to the end of the show, when numbers started to dwindle. This speaks volumes to the strength of the night’s lineup. To be able to fill a venue so full on a Sunday night is an impressive feat.
The lineup was four deep starting with the blissful bluegrass tinged, harmonium infused synth folk of Freelance Whales. They’re currently supporting the upcoming April 13th international release of their previously self released debut, Weathervanes. Every band member played multiple instruments, rotating between the traditional guitar and bass to the non-traditional glockenspiel, harmonium and synthesizer. The only mono-instrumentalist was the drummer, Jake Hyman. He only played the drums, but boy did he play them well.
Throughout the set all five group members engaged in anthemic five part, wall of sound vocal harmonies burst through the perfectly mixed sound system to envelop the audience. Lead singer Judah Dadone’s vocals came across as a cross between Ben Gibbard and Wayne Coyne‘s more melodic efforts. Kevin Read rocked an Easy Street tee on stage, a nice local gesture showing the band’s effort to connect with the audience. Even the traditional instruments became non-traditional as guitarist Chuck Criss broke out a violin bow and proceeded to play the guitar with it.
Dadone, Read and Doris Cellar traded off between guitars, bass, banjo, synthesizer, harmonium and glockenspiel throughout the set, constantly mixing it up and keeping the audience engaged. “Ghosting,” which was heavy on harmonium and vocal harmonies served as the centerpiece and one of the highlights of the set. Other highlights were the slow banjo build up and full band crescendo of “Generator^1st Floor” and the spacey, synth-heavy “Starring.”
When I first had the opportunity to review this show it was billed as Freelance Whales, with Cymbals Eat Guitars. Then CEG disappeared from the bill and Freelance Whales were then slated to open for Bear in Heaven and High Places w/ Special Guests. As it turns out the “Special Guests” were Cymbals Eat Guitars! (confusing, I know.)
CEG have their song structure formula down pat. It’s basically loud, soft, louder. The guitars of Joseph Ferocious (Joseph D’Agostino) and drums of Matthew Miller were at war for the duration of the set. Ferocious revealed his secret weapon to be a sizable collection of distortion and effects pedals as I’m pretty sure, at points, that he was trying to melt the stage.
Miller, along with bassist Matt Whipple, provided the heavy and hard rhythm section. Every song would quiet down to a melodic whisper, luring the audience into a false sense of security before the band would explode into an hardcore, thrash metal frenzy with the express purpose of kick starting the adrenaline and blowing eardrums of the audience. Highlights included “And the Hazy Sea” and the melodic cacophony of “Share.”
Throughout the entire set, the group kept audience interaction at a minimum and never once mentioned their name. This is something that I personally don’t enjoy at a concert. I don’t think many in the audience do. One of the best things about concerts is feeling like you’re interacting with the band. But they can do what they want and it is what it is. Oh well.
Bear in Heaven took the stage looking like they just got off a time machine coming straight from the seventies. Their sound is a very unique mix of My Morning Jacket style jam-rock, MGMT, and a little bit of Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd. The keyboards of Sadek Bazarra are used to create a droning minimalist foundation supported but not overshadowed by the drums of Joe Stickney.
Guitarist/vocalist Jon Philpot delivered melodic, almost ethereal vocals on crowd favorites “Lovesick Teenagers” and “Wholehearted Mess.” This worked most of the time, but the sound mix wasn’t the best and his vocals were drowned out by the droning keyboards numerous times. Philpot seemed genuinely into the set when he thanked the audience for coming out, adding “It’s Sunday night, you guys are heathens, I like it.” Their last song of the night they started over claiming they had never done that before. Yeah right.
The show featured a steady progression from more rock oriented songs at the beginning of the night to more electronic, experimental sounds by the end. The headlining duo, High Places, was quite different from the other groups, and the only one not to have a traditional drummer. The duo of Mary Pearson and Robert Barber made liberal use of trance, house and world beats to flesh out a rich electronic sound. They played guitar and bass but all percussion was either due to electronic accompaniment or the digital percussion pad Barber played with his guitar slung across his back.
Laura, Mary’s sister, joined them to provide vocals onstage for the first couple and the last few tracks. The first track opened with delicate, porcelain voiced vocal harmonies from the sisters. The same problem that had persisted most of the night reared its ugly head again here, the sound mix once again, at times drowned out Pearson’s vocals. Even though the sounds would find themselves cozy and at home inside a dance club, there were very few audience members dancing. “Golden” got more audience members moving than other songs. A few more started dancing as soon as the crowd started shrinking as people went home to get ready for work Monday morning.
Pearson and Barber let the programmed beats carry most of the songs, definitely a little different. At points they interjected guitar into the mix. Most of the time it got lost amongst the programming. As the set wound down slightly after midnight the crowd began to quickly dissipate. If they were lucky enough to not get their shoes stuck to the sticky floor, they could go home. It was definitely a solid bill all the way through. Thanks to all the bands for providing four hours of good times and electronic indie rock goodness.
