Two weeks ago in The New Yorker, Sasha Frere-Jones wrote, in his (correction) article A Paler Shade of White: How indie rock lost its soul, about the history of “indie-music” and its lack of relation to “soul, blues, reggae, or funk.“ It took a couple of pages worth of reading to figure out her point, but last night, it took only the first note of Band of Horses frontman Benjamin Bridwell singing Lamb on the Lam (In the City) at Lincoln Theatre to realize that they have just as much soul as they do “white rock”.
When approaching Lincoln Theatre, it looked as though a former American Idol contestant or The Avett Brothers were playing the venue. A queue snaked out the front door and down almost the entire block on Cabarrus Street. All ages and groups showed up to see one of the better bands that are making music for the masses these days. Raleigh was the second night on a month long tour that ends in luxurious London.
Tyler Ramsey opened the show, followed by The Drones, an outfit from Australia. The Drones produced a sound that reminds one of such bands as Hoodoo Gurus (Aussies also), The Cramps and The Clash. The problem was that although the influence was there, the progressive interpretation was not. The lighting was uncoordinated and the bassist rarely faced the crowd. It sounded as if a demolition was occurring in an adjacent alley and the sound was fed into Lincoln’s speakers. With song titles like, She Had an Abortion and Made Me Pay for It, respect was lost quickly and considering the fact that their music had a lot of “movement”, there were few fans in the audience moving. The pairing of The Drones with Band of Horses is a bit of a mystery.
Band of Horses seemed to tune and set up most of their own instruments after The Drones, a rare occurrence in the music world, and didn’t waste much time before Bridwell starting pounding on a tambourine and pointing to the crowd during “YOU” and “ME” part of the initial song, thus creating a dialogue that with the audience that continued throughout their performance. Bridwell used comedy on stage at various points throughout the evening including just before their final songs stating that this was the, “last song before we pretend to go home” and “this is the beginning of the boring part of the show if you want to go to the bathroom.“ After the later statement, they pranced into Marry Song and No One’s Gonna Love You, two gorgeous epics on their newest album Cease to Begin. From the beautiful buildup in Monster to finishing with a massive version of Funeral to finish out the set, the only part that was ever off was Bridwell’s voice for the first couple of songs. A bit flat at first, but the reverb button seemed to help later.
Band of Horses is seen as a three piece but seem to have 3 other road musicians with them that help fill the space with a grand sound. Halfway through the set the band launched into a funky and very soulful rendition of Them Two’s Am I a Good Man (which is available on Eccentric Soul’s Volume 7: The Deep City Label, a collection of old “soul, blues, reggae, and funk” tunes by Numero Group). A past rendition of this song by Band of Horses can be seen HERE. Bridwell clapped, stomped, thrusted his fist in the air and appeared to be very impassioned by this song. He even stated at the end of the song that “you would have thought that was the end of the set”. It could have well been.
After Funeral they moved into a three song encore, the first song off their newest album. The second song was by request, an audience member bribed Bridwell with a dollar to sing Part One off their debut album. The song ends with the lyric: “I’ll love you always, when we leave this place, and drive back to Carolina and down to Savannah and stay.“ and he slipped in a “Raleigh” just before the Carolina part creating a vast amount of yells from the packed audience. The last song was one they had not played since forming years ago in Seattle. They fumbled through it and joked that “even if they didn’t get it right, it was going to be last song anyways so if anyone wanted to leave at any point to close their tabs, it would be fine”.
Band of Horses knows how to fill a venue will soulful indie rock. The crowd seemed to enjoy themselves, considering there was much more movement in the audience to BoH’s songs, which were much slower than the openers. Band of Horses played Cradle last year and one can only assume that it was moved to Lincoln because of the size or date conflict with another performance. Raleigh is indebted to this now and for once, it was a long drive back to Chapel Hill for many folks rather than the trek East on I-40 from Cradle to Downtown Raleigh. Hopefully Lincoln will grab more shows via Cradle. If you happen to catch one, walk halfway up the newly added stairs and stand just above the sound board. Its the best “seat” in the house. Best view and definitely best sound.
And that, my friends, was Last Night’s Party.
Partial Set List and in No Particular Order:
Part One
The Great Salt Lake
Wicked Gil
Funeral
Monsters
Lamb of the Lam (In the City)
Is There a Ghost
Cigarettes, Wedding Bands
Ode to LRC
No One’s Gonna Love You
Detlef Schrempf
Marry Song
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