Silver Jews w/ Hallelujah the Hills @ Middle East Downstairs - 9/5/2008
Did you know that David Berman doesn’t shower while on tour? If you’ve seen the man backstage before a show or out front meeting with peeps beforehand, you’ve probably realized that he doesn’t. As he walked by a whaf came upon us that threw us all for a loop. But he’s married to her so he must being doing something write. For starters, he has gotten a lot more comfortable with his stage presence then when we first saw David and the Joos hitting the road for the first ever Silver Jews show a few years back. This time around David was free as a bird without a guitar strapped around his shoulders, giving him the ease of stage strolling. He’d walk off to the side, say hi to his fans down in the front row, and got chummy with his bandmates as he peered over their shoulders during their solid performance.
They kicked things off with one of my favorites, “Smith and Jones Forever”. For me, this was a show where the classics reigned as the new album has yet to make it into my library. Why, I don’t know, lack of motivation to download music these days but that is kicking back in. I’ve had their single, “Strange Victory, Strange Defeat”, which even my good friend who’s more a casual Joos fan could spot as the single from a mile away. It’s a great song and if you haven’t heard it yet, give it a listen below…
Listen and Download “Strange Victory, Strange Defeat”
Some other highlights were “Random Rules”, “Punks in the Beerlight” and “Tennessee”.
Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea is now available on Drag City records (Click on image below to purchase):
The whole ensemble topped it off by all wearing matching red collard shirts and dark colored jackets and pants. Yes folks, they are really from Tennessee and it shows.
Check out pictures from this show over at Prefix Mag courtesy of Bryan Bruchman, a recent NYC to Portland, ME transplant.
Hallelujah the Hills - Opening band
Hallelujah the Hills, a local Boston group who I’ve been following since they released their debut album (Collective Psychosis Begone) last year, didn’t have such a stellar performance. This was my first time seeing them live and I have to say that I enjoy their album more then this experience. To their defense, their loud, instrument heavy dynamic may not be a right fit for the Middle East Downstairs where the ceiling hangs low and the sound can get lost in the deep pockets that hang all over the venue. I’ve always loved the Mid East Downstairs for its decor but from a sound guy’s perspective, it’s a living nightmare. But still, the problem I had with their performance was the melding of the instruments, making it almost impossible to truly hear every instrument during the songs. Instrument were attacked with the same force during most of the songs leaving the clarity of each instrument and their melody making muffled. So from the crowds perspective, while the energy was clearly high and that’s important for a band to have, the overall sound was confusing and didn’t give us a clear hook or sound to hang on to.
I’m not about to stand here and tell you that you’re suppose to sound just like you do on your record when you play live. In fact, I hope you don’t. But make sure, no matter what the venue, the integrity of all your instruments are kept intact.
I’m not writing off HTH. If you’re someone who likes to look deeply into lyrics, then you should definitely pick up their first release and recent EP (which is available for free from their website). Ryan Walsh, lead singer, is well known for being inspired by guys like David Lynch and Byrne and his songs have a tendency to follow their same strange nuances.
Hallelujah the Hills just release their first LP, Collective Psychosis Begone, in 2007 on Misra. Their free EP, Prepare to Qualify, can be downloaded from their website: http://www.hallelujahthehills.com/ptq.html
Purchase Collective Psychosis Begone
Listent to and Download “Hallelujah the Hills” (Off of Collective Psychosis Begone)
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