Gritty, southern styled garage rockers, The Walkmen brought their upright piano, organ, brass players and a very streamlined, clean show to the Beachland Ballroom on Thursday July 23rd. Headlining, The Walkmen were accompanied by the well-paired, nearly- steak and potatoes matching, Cass McCombs and local musical heroes, Coffinberry.
To promote their latest album ‘You & Me’, The Walkmen have been on the road since its last August release date. Playing a well-rounded set, majority of their tunes came from ‘You & Me’.
The Walkmen opened up the late night with a new song, not yet recorded for their next coming album which Hamilton Leithauser stated they would be recording in the next coming weeks. Jokingly, after the completion of this new song, Leithauser, who towers over six feet tall (and as so, stands very tall on the stage), admitted the entire band seamlessly missed an full section of the song. Laughing off the mistake, the band broke into “In the New Year” the first single off of ‘You & Me’.
The night’s set was balanced well between powerful musically driven songs and slower more vocally driven tunes. Quick strumming songs like “The Rat” off of 2004’s ‘Bows + Arrows’, “All Hands and the Cook” from their 2006 release ‘A Hundred Miles Off -‘ where Leithauser, physically shaking, belts out at the top of his lungs “You don’t like it/Won’t you tell me/You don’t like it?”, the single, “Louisiana” also off of ‘A Hundred Miles Off ‘ and “I Lost You,”off of ‘You & Me’ gave way to a loud audience, shouting and clapping in approval. These songs paired well with the band’s slower paces like melodramatic “On the Water” which starts off slow and then picks up into a loud cymbal smashing, whistling tune and “Red Moon” a brass infused dreamy tune just begging to be listened to on a lazy summer night.
Cass McCombs was the perfect side dish to The Walkmen sound. Slower in tempo in comparison to The Walkmen, McCombs, complete with a four piece backing band played a full 40 minute set. Playing and weaving around dormant lain instruments and stands on the cramped stage, McCombs held the attention of the audience with his unique poetic lyrics as well as his intriguing shyness. He focused equal attention to his backing band as he did the crowd.
McCombs is on tour to promote his latest album ‘Catacombs’ released in the U.S. in the beginning of July. McCombs style is a true 50’s American folk rock, dressed up with a keyboard and McCombs’ beat up denim jacket and high-cuffed jeans. He is capable of blending and layering bluesy electric guitar and bass with often times, gentler lyrics and acoustic instruments. Most notable songs from the evening included ‘Dreams Come True’ where McCombs sings over a syncopated bluesy electric guitar riff ‘You’re not my dream girl/You’re not my reality girl/You are my dreams come true, girl’ and ‘Jonesy Boy,’ off of ‘Catacombs’ had McCombs stomping and marching in place with his guitar. McCombs also pulled from his most notable and best selling album to date, 2007’s ‘Dropping the Writ’ with fan favorites, “That’s That” and “Lionheart.”
Local act Coffinberry opened the summer evening show with the highest energy set of all three acts. The crowd rolled in through their set warming up the crowd on what is amounting to be a summer of very cool evenings.
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