By: Jen Paulson
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The Walkmen - Publicity photo from their website
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Saturday’s humid weather was emulated inside the balmy 400 Bar as it went from relatively empty to filled with people. The last time I saw New York’s The Walkmen they were promoting Bows and Arrows while opening for Modest Mouse at First Avenue. I personally don’t understand why they haven’t made it bigger than they have, but they seemed to pack it in and that, combined with their giant sound, made the 400 Bar seem like a much larger venue.
Opener Sybris, a four-piece from Chicago, had duct-taped instruments and fuzzy reverb that mirrored the band’s frenetic energy. The lead singer, Angela Mullenhour has a dynamic voice; at one minute it is very sweet and almost sing-songy, then she croons more intensely, and before you know it she’s flailing her hair about and wailing. Mazarin, from Philadelphia, played second. Their song, “Another One Goes By,” is actually covered by The Walkmen on their new album. Quentin Stoltzfus and his band played killer jangle-pop rock that felt summery, with a touch of the melancholy of autumn’s end. And for a bunch of people waiting to see The Walkmen, they did a great job of keeping the attention of the crowd.
There was nothing I didn’t like about The Walkmen and their set on Saturday. It had everything - the new business off their recent release, A Hundred Miles Off, and most of the standards from their other albums. Lead singer Hamilton Leithauser, albeit his almost-sullen look on stage, has a way of staring you down and sing-yelling into your bones, most notably in the passionate, crooning yell of their more well-known tracks like “The Rat” and “Little House of Savages.” They played these pretty early on in the set, inciting the seizure-like dancing that their songs have the tendency to evoke from people, including me. “Lost in Boston” showcased the always-pivotal role of Matt Barrick’s drums, and “Good For You Is Good for Me” played up Paul Maroon’s kinetic guitar style. And while I’m not necessarily a fan of the recorded version of “Emma Get Me A Lemon,” the live version really snuck in and got under my skin.
Treating us to not one but two encores, the first one included “Louisiana,” the mellow-starting first track off Miles, which crescendoed into the usual Ham wail with, “I got my hands full,” and he held the microphone two-handed as if he may actually crush it. The second encore was a song by The Recoys, the band that Leithauser and bassist Peter Bauer were in previously, called “Look Out The Window.”
Location Info:
400 Bar
Artist Info: Mazarin, Sybris, The Walkmen
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