Music
Okkervil River Was Raging at Richard's
Watching last Thursday night's Okkervil River concert at Richard's on Richards was like watching a really good Broadway performance.
It's an apt way to describe a show with music written like elaborate plots, full of twists, turns, evolving characters, and multiple climaxes. Frontman Will Sheff has been known to write wordy and elegant lyrics to paint pictures of people in shitty places in life. He also sings these words in a manner that can vary from a wild wail to a delicate down-tempo ballad.
This band's current tour promotes their latest album, the Stand-Ins, which is generally regarded as a sequel to their breakthrough fourth album, the Stage Names. (In fact, the nifty album art of both albums go together quite well.) But unlike typical Hollywood sequels, this album has given the band some staying power, being well received by even the most pretentious of music critics (i.e. Pitchfork). I was very eager to see how they'd translate their albums into a live show.
Opening acts Sea Wolf and Zykos were both fantastic in my opinion. The crowd was even able to get a little taste of Mr. Sheff as he helped Zykos with a tune early on in the night. Hailing from L.A., Sea Wolf was particularly excellent with guitar-riffs that rivalled ones heard on my favourite Interpol songs.
But alas, the main act was absolutely grand. Lead singer Will Sheff, with his musical cohorts, had the whole crowd on the edge of their... umm... feet. Having a countenance similar to that of John Lennon with his simple spectacles and scruffy hair, Sheff arrived on stage dressed smartly in a pinstriped suit and started it off easy, singing about circus clowns in "Title Track". However shortly after, they got right into the meat of the set. "Lost Coastlines" was particularly memorable, as was the moment where they induced a double-time clap to "Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe". The drum solo during this song was simply superb.
Throughout the set, Sheff provided glimpses of this creative imagination and charismatic personality. He joked about the fog machine on steroids, which at times created what seemed like a "smoke monster from a Japanese anime". The bass guitarist, Patrick Pestorius, and drummer Travis Nelsen, enjoyed themselves on stage with a little horsing around. But it wasn't all fun and games. Sheff at times appeared slightly annoyed at the noise makers in the crowd, doing his best to get the crowd to shut the hell up by stating, "The next song is a slow song". That didn't stop Nelsen however from climbing up the balcony to check out the view during Sheff's slower solo performances.
Towards the end of the evening, the band became more interactive with the giddy crowd. In multiple occasions, Pestorious lent his mic to a bunch of keeners at the front who of course knew all the right words (but apparently not the right notes). The audience ate everything up during one of the most memorable shows I've seen all year.
Even despite a few feedback issues, and spilt beer on Sheff's pedal box (and on the girl in front row!), they exceptionally delivered a performance that was almost theatrical. The stories, themes and tragic characters written in Sheff's songs were acted out on stage that night in a fashion worthy of multiple Tony awards.
I laughed, I cried and I loved it.
Okkervil River played to a sold-out crowd at Richard's on Richards on Thursday, September 18, 2008.
Many thanks to Erin from Timbre Productions.
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The show was alright, but for me it show really paled in comparison to their last stop in Vancouver. Sheff is hugely talented, but it seems like all the success has 'gotten to his head', if you will... and I have to say the latest album is the worst yet in terms of cheese-to-poetry ratio. And what was up with the two dudes in the back playing secure-the-groupies all evening? Focus on your music if you want me to take you seriously. And I was definitely missing Jonathan Meiburg during a few of those songs, though maybe the night helped explain why the dude left the band to pursue (the superior?) Shearwater... Either way - three years ago I loved these guys, but after last night's performance they've lost a lot of their remaining stock...
'A Stone' had to be my personal favorite performance of the night - beautiful rendition of a beautiful song... but lots of the potential highlights were reduced to UBC smoking/drinking anthems.
Welcome back, kids... hope you're ready for another fall indie season.
Dicks on Dicks needs to either stop overselling their club, improve the ventilation system, or start offering free water... or all maybe of the above? And yeah, the smoke machine is absurd and unnecessary.
Spiritualized last week, however, was show-of-the-year material.
Wish I had the time to properly write on these things, but nice coverage Duran -- sorry I didn't share your enthusiasm.
I also wish I had the ability to edit my comments... sorry for the bad grammar and lazy writing folk, you get the point.
Oh, and a note to Will: Over-emoting a line doesn't automatically render it profound.
Wow. Were we at the same show? I've never been as disappointed - pissed off, even - by a live show by a band whose songs I love so much, and I've never seen a band more impressed with itself on stage. Okkervil River's been reading too many of their own reviews and have totally bought into their own hype. Seriously - this was like watching a band playing its own reunion tour, they were so into themselves. Could Will Sheff be anymore precious or pretentious or ... gah ... emo? Is anyone going to tell him that it's too late to get onto the OC Soundtrack or to get namechecked by Natalie Portman in a Zach Braff movie? He was more annoying than GE Smith - and the band itself was less compelling than the Saturday Night Live Band (and that's saying something). None of them were even listening to each other, let alone paying attention to their own playing, what with all the preening. Shockingly lax. Travis Nelson clearly spends more time practicing his drumstick twirling than his actual drums. And what's up with Lauren Gurgiolo? She can barely play her banjo, she can't play her violin at all and she moves not at all, standing there like she shouldn't be there, which she shouldn't. That was the worst musicianship I've ever seen onstage at Richard's. My friend and I were both really depressed by this show, as well as the crowd's willingness to eat up so much spoonfed delivery of such amazing songs. Oh, well - the good news is, after a show like that, they sound even better on their albums, which I still love like family. And I got a fucking great t-shirt, too. :)
To be honest, I've never seen these guys live, and I was worried that Sheff's "all-over-that-map" voice would be annoying in person. But, in my humble opinion, I thought he nailed the notes quite well. You say annoying, I say he was really into it on stage. I feel that you two were proabably a minority ... it seemed the crowd was quite happy as well. You could say the audience was a bunch of unconditional fanatics (especially the ones at the front), but people I've talked to about the night also had great things to say. I'm really going by my gut feeling here... I'm sorry you two didn't enjoy yourselves that night.
emo-country. I would have punched them in the head.
I could have just been in a bad mood but I think this show ruined me for 'literary indie rock'. I have seen these guys play a couple great shows and I expected a good night, but I found it terrible. I thought the fake Arcade Fire from L.A. 'Sea Wolf' set the tone for the night. They had that certain magic that actually makes the crowd look stupid. The drummer's vest made me think they could have been a comedy group, or actors making fun of indie fans. I am getting really tired of cellos. Why would Okkervil bring this band with them? I felt like Sea Wolf articulated how phony these bands are getting. The lights are off- the emperor has no clothes. Okkervil were unable to recover. Travis acted like an idiot. Sheff seemed like an annoying prince. The band somehow pulled off seeming to both hate each other and playing music, and be fully in love with themselves at the same time. Their 'literary/indie' suit costumes were too obvious. I left before the show was done. I have put on many bad shows in my day and I think Richards is a great venue and that Timbre is a wonderful promotions company, but as a music fan I was quite disappointed with the band at this show and I totally agree with JB and Jon. It was deflating.
'They had that certain magic that actually makes the crowd look stupid.'
Classic...