The Walkmen @ The Parish 10.10
photo : valerie@fremin.net
The Walkmen are one of those bands shrouded in a bit of mystery to a certain degree. It’s not that you can’t find out as much about them as you would want to if you tried, but they seem to maintain a low profile for the most part. The opportunity to catch them live seems to be a bit more of rarity than it is with most bands these days. I can’t remember the last time they played Austin, but it seems like it’s been a few years. The lengthy wait for some, including myself, came to an end on Thursday @ The Parish.
Hailing from Los Angeles, The Little Ones opened the show with their easily familiar brand of indie-rock pop, tight, bouncy, and happy as all get out. The band’s debut album Morning Tide made release just 3 days previous to tonight’s show.
My first time to see The Walkmen, I had no preconceptions of what to expect. The music I have familiarized myself with is unique in it’s nostalgic ambiguity and as mentioned before, they have managed a somewhat low profile by today’s standards.There is an air of mystery that surrounds the band.
The performance by the band tonight was one of the most well executed and enjoyable performances that I’ve seen in awhile. The most striking aspect of the band and it’s presence, is the member’s affinity for older, classic instruments. All of the guitars that the band members were using were old Gretsch, Vox, and vintage Fender, being played through vintage amps with little to no pedal effects. Also present on stage was a wooden stand-up piano that has seen better days, and a four piece horn section. The horn section being Austin’s own Hellfire Horns, and an excellent compliment to bring the true sound of the songs to life.
Easing into the set, vocalist Hamilton Leithauser set the pace for what would be a journey that wound itself in and out of soft ballads and high energy takes on musical poetry with guitarist Paul Maroon weaving his magic along the way. Tracks from the latest You and Me, “I Lost You”, “New Country”, and “In The New Year” were well received by the crowd as the band slowed to a crawl midway through the set with the beautiful and haunting “Red Moon”. Leithauser sings each song with a passion and fervor no less than the previous, pushing his vocals to accent the poetic musings like:
But the stars are cold
And the air is bright
And I see you now
You shine like the steel on my knife
The darkness is wrapped all around me tonight
The band reached back into it’s catalog during the latter portion of the set, breaking out familiar tracks “The Rat” and “We’ve Been Had” much to the delight of the audience who consistently proved their familiarity and admiration for the band’s work.
Take a listen to a Walkmen record and what you hear is what you get. No gimmicks, no overly produced sounds, just straight from the simple instruments and complex poetic visions of a modern band living in some modern past.
