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Oh Walkmen. Sure, with the release of your latest album, you're not quite the critical darlings you once were, but you certainly don't deserve to play to a venue that's only a third full. When Seattlest got to the Showbox on Friday night, we were shocked (shocked!) at how empty it was: one of the bars was closed, the other bar area was far from packed, and the floor held groups of people scattered about in pockets here and there. Yes, everyone's precious Mountain Goats were playing across town, but surely the Venn diagram isn't that overlapped, right?
It's too bad that there weren't more people present, because the Walkmen were in as fine of form as we've ever seen them. The past two or three times they've been in town, singer Hamilton Leithauser was apt to screech his high notes, an experience painful for both the audience and Leithauser's vocal cords. This time, while there were still a fair share of throat vein-popping moments, he kept the screech in check.
The set itself was skewed towards the last two albums, with a few from the first one thrown in for good measure. Since bassist Peter Bauer and keyboardist/organist Walter Martin switched roles on the new album, it was easy to tell whether the next song would be a new one or an old one, based on who was manning what instrument. "We've Been Had" went unplayed, which was a big disappointment, especially since we know they closed out the encore with that song at their recent D.C. gig (thanks All Songs Considered). We were also hoping they'd play "Bows and Arrows," one of our favorite tracks off the album of the same name, but no, 'twas not to be.
The crowd's biggest reaction of the night was for straight-up pissed-off rocker "The Rat," a song which highlights both Leithauser's intensity and wee drummer Matt Barrick's ferocious pounding. There were also big cheers for Paul Maroon's trumpet playing on "Louisiana." With the help of opener Mazarin's singer Quentin Stoltzfus, the band broke out one of Harry Nilsson's songs from their upcoming track-by-track remake of his album Pussy Cats, and closed the set with Mazarin tune "Another One Goes By," even though that band played it themselves in their opening set. Kinda awkward, guys, but we suppose that's probably acceptable, and maybe even warranted, when a venue is less than half full.
Photo care of Flickr / user cover me.
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two possibilities as to attendance - the mountain goats at neumo's (which was packed) and halou at chop suey. i asked a few friends about their plans and the walkmen were definitely the 3rd option.
if the walkmen had played a different night, i would've gone. maybe the band overreached since they put on a really good set at neumo's a couple of years ago. their metacritic average was about the same for "bows & arrows".
Yeah, it was probably just bad timing and a convergence of good shows on the same night, but still, it's a damn shame.
And though the averages of the reviews for the last two albums are similar, there's a complete difference in tone. There were a lot of glowing reviews for Bows and Arrows (which made many critics' Top 10 for that year); meanwhile, most of the write-ups for A Hundred Miles Off have been just plain mediocre.
i get the sense (both from critics' reviews & my own repeated listens) that while bows & arrows felt like it was building on the quality and promise of everyone..., the new album is the band pulling back. from the buried guitars to being mostly mid-tempo throughout, the main point seemed to be restraint. a hundred miles off is growing on me, but it definitely started out a little surprising and somewhat disappointing just on my own expectations.