After a 7 year hiatus, the Inbreds reunited to play Lee’s Palace at CMW. This Halifax/Kingston initiative from the 90’s showered us with their brand of drum-driven bass music. It was an opportunity for old fans to hear some classic tunes, and new ones (admittedly myself) to discover this charming band. They played their fun brand of indie rock that harkens back to the days before indie rock was anywhere near as cool as it is now.
One of the most interesting aspects about the Inbreds is their unique approach to standard rock instruments. Bassist Mike O’Neill plays bass the way other people play guitar: by strumming chords and playing through distortion pedals. This makes for a heavy full sound that still manages to not be muddy. Pair this with some good story-telling vocals, and solid drumming in Dave Ullrich, and you’ve got yourself a decent show. Add an encore (a rare CMW treat) where Dave sports a flamboyant Elvis suit and you’ve got yourself a pretty good show.
I’m not a rock star, but I imagine one of the hardest task for a band is to follow up an opening act that just put on an absolutely blazing show. On the upside, everyone at the venue is already in a great mood, on the flip side, expectations become exceedingly high. This was the circumstance that veteran folk act Bowerbirds faced on a chilly Tuesday night at the Garrison.
The five piece band was in town to promote recently released album The Clearing. It was the North Carolina band’s third record and first in three years. I was completely new to the band, having gone to the show on a whim and was interested in them due to comparisons to Lavender Diamond, a band I enjoy.
After witnessing their hour long set, I think Bowerbirds songs are more digestible if the concert attendee knew their music. Philip Moore’s vocals sound a bit like Fyfe Dangerfield’s and his tales of love, relationships and other things certainly sound like good stories but too often i failed to catch the hook within the songs. The band are certainly talented musicians, switching between accordion, keyboards, strings, triangles, maracas and guitar with surprising ease. However, I sensed a certain lack of cohesion between the instruments during the tracks. Too often it was just everyone playing at once, which meant nothing really stood out. Seems kind of a waste if you have such talented people on these instruments if you don’t take the time to properly integrate it into the music. Maybe the recorded version sounds different.
As a newcomer to the band, I left the show completely indifferent. Maybe a listening session to their record is in order though, as the people beside me were happily singing along to the songs.
Tour dates are as follows:
Tue. April 3 — Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile w/ Dry the River
Wed. April 4 — Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge w/ Dry the River
Fri. April 6 — San Francisco, CA @ The Independent w/ Dry the River
Sat. April 7 — Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour w/ Dry the River
Sun. April 8 — San Diego, CA @ Casbah w/ Dry the River
Wed. April 11 — Austin, TX @ The Parish w/ Dry the River
Thu. April 12 — Dallas, TX @ The Loft w/ Dry the River
Sat. April 14 — Birmingham, AL @ The Bottletree w/ Mandolin Orange
Sun. April 15 — Atlanta, GA @ The Earl w/ Mandolin Orange
SXSW can be a bit of a whirlwind. This year, I figure I saw somewhere around 50 bands … I didn’t necessarily pay close attention to all of them, nor did I stick around for a full set by each, but still, that’s a lot of bands. When you see that much within the span of a few days, not all of it will stand out. Brooklyn’s Chairlift, however, made an impression on me right away (Ricky was less impressed, but I think he may be coming around a bit). Whether it was their catchy synthpop tunes or singer Caroline Polachek’s dance moves, they had my attention. So when I had the chance to see them again less than two weeks later, I figured why not?
And they did not disappoint. Polachek’s dance moves were on full display and I think I even spied a few audience members copying her moves. Oh, and she played castanets at one point. Castanets! How often do you see a band with castanets? And did I mention the songs? Oh so catchy. Days later, songs like “Wrong Opinion,” “I Belong In Your Arms,” “Amanaemonesia,” and “Sidewalk Safari” are still stuck in my head (this could also be due to the repeated listenings to their album Something as well …) I also appreciated the little quote from Modern English’s “I’ll Melt With You” thrown into the middle of “Bruises.” Basically, this band knows their way around a good melody.
And for those who have not yet seen the band live, you’ll just have to content yourself with watching the video for ” Amanaemonesia,” featuring the aforementioned dance moves of Ms. Polachek:
Chicago – I love Of Montreal. I’ve been smitten ever since one of my high school friends showed me the song names of The Early Four Track Recordings that tell the story of Dustin Hoffman taking a bath and ultimately consuming the tub (which in true Of Montreal fashion, has no bearing whatsoever on the content of the songs themselves). They occupy a good portion of my music library and in my opinion Kevin Barnes is a musical genius who has creativity oozing out of his ears. That being said, I’ve seen Of Montreal twice in concert now and I have two words to sum up the live experience: magically disappointing.
There’s so much potential – there’s no end to amazing stand-alone Of Montreal pieces: Gronlandic Edit, Wraith pinned to the Mist and Other Games, Suffer for Fashion, Tim wish you were born a girl, No conclusion, When a Man is in Love with a Man – I could go on for a good while. Yet both times I’ve been to see Of Montreal, they’ve played only two pieces that the audience seems to know and is able to get excited about, and the rest of the set is fine, but the psychedelic-pop melds together without much distinction between songs, leaving, at least me, with a blah feeling by the end. The onstage visual doesn’t really help – actors wearing wrestling suits/sheets/pig masks/body suits wander the stage and seem to be as lost as to why they are there as the audience is.
As much as it breaks my heart to say it, I think this is my last Of Montreal concert – they’ll probably always occupy a good chunk of my music library, but there are too many amazing acts out there to give third chances.
