I'm a pretty poor judge of last night's The Walkmen show at the Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge, because I'm predisposed to not enjoy anything in that basement venue. The combination of the low ceiling and the poor lighting and sightlines prompts an unrelenting panic attack from the moment I walk down those beer soaked steps.
While I usually avoid all shows there, I had to make an exception for New York's The Walkmen. This band and all three of their albums are simply phenomenal. And as everyone will tell you, the huge draw is vocalist Hamilton Leithauser. Yeah, the band has crafted a pretty original, raw sound with great touches of echoey horns and organ, blah, blah, blah - but, good lord, that voice! Leithauser isn't just reminiscent of Bob Dylan. He channels Dylan - a wise, soulful, raspy howl floating out of his 20-something body. Live, he belts out the vocals even more passionately than recorded. It's as though Dylan made a pact with Leithauser, entrusting him with his voice, and Leithauser travels the world, sharing this gift with all. As icing on the cake, Leithauser performs Leonard Cohen covers with equal aplomb and brilliance. What's next, a Tom Waits album? Someone needs to redeem the work of Scarlett Johansson.
The Walkmen's set drew heavily from their new release You & Me, which is arguably the strongest of their three fantastic albums. Some in the packed, youthful crowd had already learned the new material, and regardless of their familiarity with it, everyone joyfully nodded along. Since I spent most of the show nervously nursing a whisky with one eye on stage and the other on the fire exits, I missed the end of their set. But I'm going to safely guess that they played crowd favorites “Louisiana” and “The Rat” and everyone sang along. Go see The Walkmen perform (in a venue that doesn't terrify you). Buy all their albums. Listen to those Leonard Cohen covers. Thank me later.
Opening for The Walkmen was Portland's The Builders and the Butchers. I missed them, but my melophobe counterpart said they played a tight set (though he's likewise from Portland, so there may be a bit of bias). The second openers? Hmmm. Have you listened to the This American Life episode where the Hasidic Jew starts a hardcore punk band? That episode and that awful hardcore are far more entertaining than Golem, whose novelty Klesmer act wore thin after, say, 2 minutes - probably at the point when the male vocalist started singing about female anatomy while accompanied by the accordion. Ugh. Golem's performance was certainly polarizing, as the young kids in the front jumped up and down to the quasi-traditional beats, while the old hats in the back rolled their eyes. You can guess where I was standing.
