Recent Shows: The Wrens, Feist
A few quick words on some shows I caught recently.
Feist (w/ Grizzly Bear) @ The Vic Theatre
It's the little creaks, creaks, and subtle vocal inflections that make Feist such a joy to listen to. On her records you can hear it in the way she cascades her phrases and cuts off her enunciations. It is really hard to get an appreciation for it when you see her live. Aside from super-intimate tracks like "The Park" (which I wanted to hear two or three more times), the quality of her voice was lost on the fullness of her band. They sounded great, and her performance was very high-energy, but next time I see her, I want it to be a solo-acoustic thing though.
Grizzly Bear was surprisingly entertaining, despite the fact that I think their album is a bore-fest. They're interesting to watch live because the songs are very dense for only having four guys on stage -- i.e. they have a lot of loops, layers, instruments, and other goings-on. At the same time the songs feel slow, and hollow. You gotta respect Grizzly Bear after seeing them live because, let's face it, it must take a lot of patience to write songs that are this empty.
The Wrens @ The Belmont Arts & Music Fest
First of all, let me just say one thing about this festival: Corn Dogs = $9. Sure they come with fries, but holy fuck... $9???
The Wrens are an interesting story in rock 'n roll. They work regular day jobs and take short vacations to tour. From what I can tell, they seem to be pretty happy playing their most recent record The Meadowlands (see below) in it's entirety every night. That's great by me because it is an AWESOME album -- my favorite from 2003 in fact. I managed to lean over the railing before the show and ask Charles Bissel (Guitarist / Singer) whether or not they had plans to play any new material and he said jokingly, "New material? Come on man it's only been four years since the record came out and you want new tunes already? Get off my back with this pressure!" I'll give a 10% chance at best that they record another album, ever.
Anyway, no new material was played, but that's fine because the set was still ripe with energy. You can see from the photos that the band still enjoys playing these songs. In the 3 times I've seen them since 2003, each song on Meadowlands has evolved significantly from the version that's recorded. It's almost like the band is just rewriting all of existing material. Really, they could go on playing those songs forever and I'd still go. That's how good that album is. Did I mention I found a link and have posted it below?
Feist (w/ Grizzly Bear) @ The Vic Theatre
It's the little creaks, creaks, and subtle vocal inflections that make Feist such a joy to listen to. On her records you can hear it in the way she cascades her phrases and cuts off her enunciations. It is really hard to get an appreciation for it when you see her live. Aside from super-intimate tracks like "The Park" (which I wanted to hear two or three more times), the quality of her voice was lost on the fullness of her band. They sounded great, and her performance was very high-energy, but next time I see her, I want it to be a solo-acoustic thing though.
Grizzly Bear was surprisingly entertaining, despite the fact that I think their album is a bore-fest. They're interesting to watch live because the songs are very dense for only having four guys on stage -- i.e. they have a lot of loops, layers, instruments, and other goings-on. At the same time the songs feel slow, and hollow. You gotta respect Grizzly Bear after seeing them live because, let's face it, it must take a lot of patience to write songs that are this empty.
The Wrens @ The Belmont Arts & Music Fest
First of all, let me just say one thing about this festival: Corn Dogs = $9. Sure they come with fries, but holy fuck... $9???
The Wrens are an interesting story in rock 'n roll. They work regular day jobs and take short vacations to tour. From what I can tell, they seem to be pretty happy playing their most recent record The Meadowlands (see below) in it's entirety every night. That's great by me because it is an AWESOME album -- my favorite from 2003 in fact. I managed to lean over the railing before the show and ask Charles Bissel (Guitarist / Singer) whether or not they had plans to play any new material and he said jokingly, "New material? Come on man it's only been four years since the record came out and you want new tunes already? Get off my back with this pressure!" I'll give a 10% chance at best that they record another album, ever.
Anyway, no new material was played, but that's fine because the set was still ripe with energy. You can see from the photos that the band still enjoys playing these songs. In the 3 times I've seen them since 2003, each song on Meadowlands has evolved significantly from the version that's recorded. It's almost like the band is just rewriting all of existing material. Really, they could go on playing those songs forever and I'd still go. That's how good that album is. Did I mention I found a link and have posted it below?
Labels: 2007, Live Reviews
posted by Mike H. at 1:35 PM
