Weakerthans
Larry Livermore has written lovingly of the Weakerthans and his endorsement is enough for me, so I went to see them last night and, while I’m not ready to follow them around the country as Larry has, I did think they were pretty great, even though I eventually experienced wistfulness overload after about 10 or so of their songs.
I was especially impressed with their songwriting and musicianship; there were at least a couple occasions when their sound was so tight it almost seemed like they were lip-synching, but you could tell they weren’t by the passion and intensity they brought to all their songs.
I was under the impression that they were going to be more punk-sounding than they were; in fact, they reminded me more of an alternative college rock band like Death Cab for Cutie or Modest Mouse than the kind of pop-punk stuff that I was under the impression that Larry usually favors.
The other thing that surprised me was how many of their songs I seemed to sort of know; I guess they must have been featured a lot on KEXP, the radio station I usually listen to when I listen to radio; that tune “Night Windows,” for instance, I’m reall familiar with, although I didn’t know it was the Weakerthans who were singing it.
The show was pretty packed and lots of people seemed to know many of the lyrics to many of the songs; on several occasions, the lead singer, John K. Samson was able to stop singing so the audience could mouth the chorus of a tune.
As is so often the case in situations like this, I felt just a little outside of the action; it wasn’t exactly that I was old and out-of-it; it was more that I felt like I’d been there before with some other band, maybe the Replacements circa 1985 or even Fountains of Wayne, first time I saw them in 1995 or so.
I was especially impressed with their songwriting and musicianship; there were at least a couple occasions when their sound was so tight it almost seemed like they were lip-synching, but you could tell they weren’t by the passion and intensity they brought to all their songs.
I was under the impression that they were going to be more punk-sounding than they were; in fact, they reminded me more of an alternative college rock band like Death Cab for Cutie or Modest Mouse than the kind of pop-punk stuff that I was under the impression that Larry usually favors.
The other thing that surprised me was how many of their songs I seemed to sort of know; I guess they must have been featured a lot on KEXP, the radio station I usually listen to when I listen to radio; that tune “Night Windows,” for instance, I’m reall familiar with, although I didn’t know it was the Weakerthans who were singing it.
The show was pretty packed and lots of people seemed to know many of the lyrics to many of the songs; on several occasions, the lead singer, John K. Samson was able to stop singing so the audience could mouth the chorus of a tune.
As is so often the case in situations like this, I felt just a little outside of the action; it wasn’t exactly that I was old and out-of-it; it was more that I felt like I’d been there before with some other band, maybe the Replacements circa 1985 or even Fountains of Wayne, first time I saw them in 1995 or so.
posted by Professor Dave at 2:03 PM
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