By: David de Young
 |
| David Salmela (left) and Brock Davis (right) of Work of Saws - Photo from their website |
There was a point in the not so distant past when I used to get what I call the two "Saw" bands confused. That would be Work of Saws and the Saw Doctors. The Saw Doctors are a band from Dublin, Ireland and will be back in town to play the First Avenue Main Room on March 4th (They're good too. Go see 'em if you can.) Work of Saws, however, are a Minneapolis band made up of Brock Davis, chief songwriter, vocalist and guitarist; David Salmela, long-time collaborator, bass player and piano player; Kurt Froelich on Guitar, and the recently added Shawn Grider (of Faux Jean fame, and also formerly of Divorcee) on Drums.
Work of Saws played the middle slot Friday night, a Saw sandwich so to speak between openers Big Giant Robot and headliners, the newly re-formed Divorcee. Forgive me for gushing, but WOS is amazingly talented and their recorded stuff may just blow you away. If they can get the college radio airplay they deserve they will go far, far, far. Reminiscent of the Shins at times, live a few songs conjured up memories of the Kinks or even Wall of Voodoo. This is sweet, moody, smart, pop. And the mechanical reindeer that were brought on the stage for the show was a festive holiday touch! I asked Brock Davis later if they'd gotten the reindeer especially for the show and yes, apparently Kurt and Dave had picked them up at Home Depot just for the occasion. "We've done a few shows using props and art like Lite-Brite signs, giant rabbit heads, homemade graphs explaining Lou Diamond Phillips' acting career...that sort of thing," Davis said. Fun!
They started their set with the haunting "Harmattan Teeth" from their recent LP The Pious Flats. And it taught me a new word. Harmattan: "A dry, hot wind, prevailing on the Atlantic coast of Africa, in December, January, and February, blowing from the interior or Sahara. It is usually accompanied by a haze which obscures the sun." Now, you also, are enlightened, and you can thank me later. However, the combination of "Harmattan" and "Teeth" into its own phrase is something I haven't heard outside of this song title.
Next was "Invisible Darts." This knockout track is one you can get from their MP3 sight if you want your socks knocked right off. (And then you don't have to take my word for it how good it is.) I would recommend it as a good introduction to Work of Saws, and I can assure you that if you like it, you'll love it and you'll be heading right back for more. "Invisible Darts" is such a sweet song and so perfect at this time of year "Instant summer, I'm still forgetting." I've been listening to it in my car, and at work to take the edge off a long day. It's kind of a musical retreat into that lazy feeling of a summer evening that you might just be missing about now.
Often my show reviews include a song-by-song run down of the set list. But there's no way I can do that here. Work of Saws songs are typically short, averaging around 2 to 2 ½ minutes. So as far as the set list go, they played nearly 20 songs in 45 minutes. According to Davis, "Songs sometimes get redundant when they're 4 to 5 minutes long. If a song is going to be long, I'd rather it surprise me, change itself up as it goes. I never seek out to write short songs, it just happens that way more times than not."
Highlights of the set for me were "I've Got Guns," a country song from the new album whose hook may remind you of the Kink's "Waterloo Sunset." "I've Got Guns," the song that reminded me of "Mexican Radio" by Wall of Voodoo. It was around that song that singer Brock Davis thanked the crowd for coming out into the cold and admiring their malfunctioning animals. (Although it was hardly noticeable, the head on the deer on stage left wouldn't light up quite right.)
"Baritone Astronaut Quartet" is a song from the band's previous album "Motivation and Watertown Grammar" (2001) that I'd also recommend you download from their MP3 and listen to. I didn't realize how catchy that song was until it was still stuck in my head all day Saturday and Sunday and I couldn't even place it at first. I was thinking for a while that the stuck song must be by the Shins because it seemed so familiar to me and I'd practically OD's on "Oh Inverted World" this spring. But no! The song lick was "my favorite daydream" from this song that I'd only heard once or twice from their MP3 site and then at the show on Friday. Hats off on the songwriting there!
Near the end of the set came "So Bronze" another song from the 2001 album that was a stand out in the set, but really there were many others stand out moments that my notes speak of, songs that I hadn't heard because they're apparently not even released. Davis at least made reference to this on one occasion when he said, "Let's do another song that no one's heard." It makes you wonder what kind of arsenal of unsung gems Davis has got in his storehouse that have yet to see the light of day. It looks favorable that some of the new tunes may be recorded and released in the New Year.
The low key set picked up energy during the last few songs as bass and drums worked into about the closest thing to a rock and roll frenzy that this band presents, and even then it's still pretty subdued. In many ways, the set ended too soon. My head was left swimming with memories of great pop fragments, sweet melodies, and cleverly turned phrases such as in the last song "Niagara Fell."
The last words heard from the WOS stage were Brock Davis saying, "Divorcee are next. The deer are staying where they are."
Location Info:
7th Street Entry
Artist Info: Work of Saws
Share this story:
Article comments powered by Disqus