Band of Horses
Palais Theatre, St Kilda
Wednesday 23 Jan 2013
Mike Noga and the Gentlemen of Fortune were a fitting opening act for Band of Horses at the Palais. Whilst I’m more familiar with Noga’s work as The Drones’ drummer, he’s always had a reputation as an artist who oozes credibility in his own right. The band opened with “Piss on a Butterfly” (the only song in the set reminiscent of The Drones) and followed with a solid half hour of other tracks from Noga’s repertoire, peppered with his understated banter. Check out a few of Mike Noga’s tracks on Soundcloud here.
A conversation with a friend before the gig confirmed what I’d suspected: it wasn’t just me who was underwhelmed by the latest Band of Horses album, “Mirage Rock”. We agreed that it was good in parts, but not a patch on the earlier releases the Seattle-formed, South Carolina-based group had delivered. Assuming that the band would likely focus on the new album, we were both hoping for at least some of our favourite tracks from their early releases. I was astounded to find, however, that Band of Horses played 7 out of 10 tracks from my favourite of their albums, 2007’s “Cease to Begin”.
Frontman Ben Bridwell opened the show by playing “St Augustine” and “The Great Salt Lake” solo. These were amongst very few quiet moments during the night as the set tended to focus on the louder tracks from Band of Horses’ 4 albums. The first song they played as a band was “Is There a Ghost” (their first successful single in Europe) and the thumping chorus was a sign of things to come, with the band signaling their desire to let loose.
Whilst it would have been great to hear some of their more mellow tracks like “Window Blues”, “Detlef Schrempf”, “Part One” and “Evening Kitchen”, by the end of the night it wasn’t the song selection but the volume that was making me wish for something different. I’m not sure what it is about the PA at the Palais, but I think the bulk of the gigs I’ve seen there over the last 20 years have been either ear-splittingly loud (as this one was) or really poorly mixed -Feist in 2012 being a notable exception. Hell, I even witnessed Patti Smith start her show at the Palais years ago without her mic turned on-after the audience repeatedly shouted “We can’t hear you!” she stopped the show until the sound engineer sorted it out! Don’t get me wrong, I like to feel the full force of the music and that means it usually needs to be loud, but by the end of Band of Horses’ set, it was so loud you couldn’t make out one instrument from another. They looked like they were having such a good time, but it was hard to get swept up in their enthusiasm when I spent the second half of the gig contemplating running out to buy some earplugs (having not used them for probably 15 years).
Whilst “Is there a Ghost” was performed without the vocal harmonies we’re accustomed to from their recordings, it was harmonies galore from then on. Strangely, given he’d pulled off the opening tracks beautifully, Bridwell’s voice came across as a bit whiney without the harmonies when the full band was playing, but thankfully, backed by the harmonies of the other members, it sounded great.
As well as the bulk of “Cease to Begin”, the rest of the set consisted of at least half of their debut LP, 2006’s “Everything All the Time” and a small selection of tracks from their Grammy nominated third album “Infinite Arms” (2010), and album number four, 2012’s “Mirage Rock” (including “Knock Knock” which was well received).
Bridwell comes across as a goofball with a short attention span who is absolutely passionate about the music he’s playing and is 100% in the moment (at one point he was mucking around mid song trying to get his cap off his head and onto the head of his guitar, then onto the floor and back to his head via his guitar head without using his hands – you’ll be pleased to know he didn’t miss a note).
They ended their set with “The Funeral” (from “Everything all the Time”), which finished with a marathon drum fill and lots of feedback long after they’d left the stage. Following a standing ovation, the encore of “No One’s Gonna Love You” and “The General Specific” topped off what was a great show, but one that would have been immeasurably more enjoyable with decent sound. I left happy to have heard some of my favourite country tinged alternative rock tracks of the last decade live, but wishing I’d seen them in a pub rather than a theatre.
Check out a selection of Band of Horses tracks below.
A conversation with a friend before the gig confirmed what I’d suspected: it wasn’t just me who was underwhelmed by the latest Band of Horses album, “Mirage Rock”. We agreed that it was good in parts, but not a patch on the earlier releases the Seattle-formed, South Carolina-based group had delivered. Assuming that the band would likely focus on the new album, we were both hoping for at least some of our favourite tracks from their early releases. I was astounded to find, however, that Band of Horses played 7 out of 10 tracks from my favourite of their albums, 2007’s “Cease to Begin”.
Frontman Ben Bridwell opened the show by playing “St Augustine” and “The Great Salt Lake” solo. These were amongst very few quiet moments during the night as the set tended to focus on the louder tracks from Band of Horses’ 4 albums. The first song they played as a band was “Is There a Ghost” (their first successful single in Europe) and the thumping chorus was a sign of things to come, with the band signaling their desire to let loose.
Whilst it would have been great to hear some of their more mellow tracks like “Window Blues”, “Detlef Schrempf”, “Part One” and “Evening Kitchen”, by the end of the night it wasn’t the song selection but the volume that was making me wish for something different. I’m not sure what it is about the PA at the Palais, but I think the bulk of the gigs I’ve seen there over the last 20 years have been either ear-splittingly loud (as this one was) or really poorly mixed -Feist in 2012 being a notable exception. Hell, I even witnessed Patti Smith start her show at the Palais years ago without her mic turned on-after the audience repeatedly shouted “We can’t hear you!” she stopped the show until the sound engineer sorted it out! Don’t get me wrong, I like to feel the full force of the music and that means it usually needs to be loud, but by the end of Band of Horses’ set, it was so loud you couldn’t make out one instrument from another. They looked like they were having such a good time, but it was hard to get swept up in their enthusiasm when I spent the second half of the gig contemplating running out to buy some earplugs (having not used them for probably 15 years).
Whilst “Is there a Ghost” was performed without the vocal harmonies we’re accustomed to from their recordings, it was harmonies galore from then on. Strangely, given he’d pulled off the opening tracks beautifully, Bridwell’s voice came across as a bit whiney without the harmonies when the full band was playing, but thankfully, backed by the harmonies of the other members, it sounded great.
As well as the bulk of “Cease to Begin”, the rest of the set consisted of at least half of their debut LP, 2006’s “Everything All the Time” and a small selection of tracks from their Grammy nominated third album “Infinite Arms” (2010), and album number four, 2012’s “Mirage Rock” (including “Knock Knock” which was well received).
Bridwell comes across as a goofball with a short attention span who is absolutely passionate about the music he’s playing and is 100% in the moment (at one point he was mucking around mid song trying to get his cap off his head and onto the head of his guitar, then onto the floor and back to his head via his guitar head without using his hands – you’ll be pleased to know he didn’t miss a note).
They ended their set with “The Funeral” (from “Everything all the Time”), which finished with a marathon drum fill and lots of feedback long after they’d left the stage. Following a standing ovation, the encore of “No One’s Gonna Love You” and “The General Specific” topped off what was a great show, but one that would have been immeasurably more enjoyable with decent sound. I left happy to have heard some of my favourite country tinged alternative rock tracks of the last decade live, but wishing I’d seen them in a pub rather than a theatre.
Check out a selection of Band of Horses tracks below.
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Image courtesy of Tone Deaf
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Videos courtesy of Rookie Magazine
Image courtesy of the AU Review
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Image courtesy of Tone Deaf
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Image courtesy of www.spin.com
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