“‘BETTER late than never’ is a phrase I always drag out when I find a brilliant band who have been around for ages and promptly rush out to buy their back-catalogue in a pathetic attempt to catch up on what I’ve missed. Not many bands inspire such wanton monetary abandon, but Nada Surf are one of them.” – Crud Features
Before this past summer, I was only familiar with Nada Surf’s hit “Popular” (which I had totally disassociated with them anyway, and probably for the best.) But I’m almost certain to be putting their brand new album The Weight Is A Gift (Barsuk, 2005) on my top 10 list of 2005. And I don’t think I’ll be alone.
The Weight Is A Gift is is actually an album, a creation greater than the sum of its parts that is more than just a collection of songs. And this is refreshing in this day of $.99 track-at-a-time downloads.
TWIAG opens strongly with the bouncy, catchy, and uplifting — if oddly titled — “Concrete Bed” (the title comes from the song’s first verse:
The world’s locked up in your head
You’ve been pouring it a concrete bed
Your habits ossify
You don’t realize you’re fried
The old poet in me digs that the final couplet cleverly rhymes the scientific term “ossify” with the somewhat colloquial “fried.”
The album then takes you for a 44 minute ride with few low points, even as you move through the slower ballads. As they say, “It’s all good.” But if you want a CD review, read these:
- This one is wrong, and somewhat laughably pompous.
- This one misses the point: (and the reviewer didn’t read the lyric sheet for “Always Love.”)
- This one heads down the right path, observing, “There’s a depth to these recordings that repays deeper listening, both on the purely sonic level and lyrically.”
And here’s a link to some thoughts by a guy whose sky is the same color as the one in my world.
Now, with that stuff out of the way, here is my review of the show:
When Nada Surf opened their set with “Blizzaard of ’77,” the opening track from their acclaimed 2003 album Let Go, the 400 Bar was instantly in sing-along mode. Fans love this band, and understandably; there’s a lot to love. First and foremost, this is rock-infused pop, catchy and memorable, that draws from influences as diverse as the Foo Fighters and Guided By Voices. But like all great pop, it transcends its humble origins. I should caution the reader, however, that though this reviewer perceives genuine depth in these songs, some listeners may not. As the ancient wisdom says, only when the student is ready does the teacher appear. That being said, some of these songs will likely miss their mark.
Not losing an ounce of momentum, the band pounded into the terrific opening track from The Weight Is A Gift, “Concrete Bed.” When the 3rd song played was “Happy Kid” from Let Go it was clear the guys weren’t fucking around. Over the next hour the set was as packed full of content as each of their last two albums. (I suppose I’m stating the obvious here, but it is a lot easier to build a great rock and roll set out of a great set of rock and roll songs.) I also found the performance to be excedptional – really, as many shows as I’ve seen in my day I was downright dumbstruck that 3 guys could create such wonderfully tight, punchy sound live in a small club.
Guitarist/vocalist Matthew Caws said he was glad to be at the 400 Bar and out of “Middle Earth,” as he called it, referring to the Quest nightclub in downtown Minneapolis. The set progressed, alternating between songs from Let Go and TWIAG, but they also tossed in “80 Windows” from The Proximity Effect.
A celebrity-spotting ocurred as Slim Dunlap (Replacements) walked past me at the end of “Hi-Speed Soul.” (Watch the video for that song here.). And “Always Love” came off as powerfully and transcendent live as on the album, including the cool “hey you good ones” close, reminiscent of Guided By Voices “Glad Girls,” (Hey hey, glad girls / only wanna get you high.”)
To use an unavoidable cliché, the crowd went wild at the beginning of “Killians Red” from Let Go, and then bass player Daniel Lorca did something I had not seen in a Minneapolis Bar since the smoking ban started on March 31st: He lit up a cigarette. (Crud Magazine jokes that Lorca’s role in the band is that he “plays bass and sings when he’s not smoking.” At first people thought it wasn’t a real cigarette. Well, it was. (See photo.)
“Do It Again,” the first single off the new album, was the 10th song of the set, and by that point I had already been musically gratified more than at longer shows by other bands. Caws announced unexpectedly, “We’re halfway through.” And they kept going.
Towards the end of the 16 song set proper, “Paper Boats” gave way to a song snippet from Echo And The Bunnymen’s “Ocean Rain.”
And it still wasn’t over. The two 3-song encores felt like mini shows in themselves. Live, I noticed the structural similarities between “Your Legs Crawl” and “Always Love.” “Imaginary Friends” (which they introduced as “the last song on our new album”) started with a pow. Towards the end of the song, again giving the whole show overall artistic structure, they reprised the “hate will get every time / always love” bit here.
For the second encore opener Lianne Smith joined Caws on “The Film Did Not Go Round.” When the full band re-ascended the stage again, Lorca was smoking again. “Stalemate” morphed into a bang-up cover of Joy Division’s “Love will Tear Us Apart,” and the set ended beautifully with “Hyperspace,” again a track adding some balance to the set, as it’s track 1 from Proximity Effect.
Summary: Nada Surf is pure joy live. Don’t miss this tour! And openers Say Hi To Your Mom are worth getting there early for.
Related links:
- Nada Surf website
- 3 Imaginary Girls interview
- MySpace page
- Do it again(download the first single off The Weight Is a Gift)
Set list:
1. Blizzard of ’77 (Let Go)
2. Concrete Bed (The Weight is a Gift)
3. Happy Kid (Let Go)
4. What is Your Secret? (The Weight is a Gift)
5. Hi-Speed Soul (Let Go)
6. Always Love (The Weight is a Gift)
7. Killian’s Red (Let Go)
8. 80 Windows (The Proximity Effect)
9. Fruit Fly (Let Go)
10. Do It Again (The Weight is a Gift)
11. Inside of Love
12. la pour ca (Let Go)
13. Blankest Year (The Weight is a Gift) / “Meow Meow Lullaby”
14. In The Mirror (The Weight is a Gift)
15. Paper Boats (Let Go)
16. The Way You Wear Your Head (Let Go)
Encore 1
1. Your Legs Grow (The Weight is a Gift)
2. Blonde On Blonde (Let Go
3. Imaginary Friends (The Weight is a Gift)
Encore 2
1. The Film Did Not Go Round (Lianna Smith/Matthew)
2. Stalemate
3. Hyperspace (The Proximity Effect)