March 27-29: Akron/Family

And I'm back. I guess. I really don't have the discipline to keep a blog. Or interesting enough thoughts. But I went to another concert, so here I am.

Being the super fan that I am, I went to all three Akron/Family shows last weekend. The first was at The New Museum in Manhattan, and the 2nd two were at Union Pool in Brooklyn. Openers were Lexie Mountain Boys (who actually had to play after Akron/Family Friday due to traffic troubles), Golden Sparkle Band and Larkin Grimm.

I guess I'll cover the openers first:

Lexie Mountain Boys: I think I would have liked them less if they were the opener. They only played for about 10 minutes after Akron/Family had finished, and that's probably as much as I can take. LMB are an all female group that sings and doesn't play any instruments. They have interesting outfits. Their "songs" are really just a lot of chanting and yelling. It's somewhat entertaining, but to be honest, it looks like some Williamsburg hipster performance art piece more than an actual band that tours, which is what they are. I saw them back up Akron/Family in 2006 at what I considered to be one of the best shows I've ever seen. There, their chanting really helped add something to the music. By itself, I think I would start getting annoyed if it went on much longer than 10 minutes.

Golden Sparkle Band: Jazz group. Piano, guitar, sax/clarinet, trumpet/bass clarinet, drums and standup bass. I really don't know what to say about these guys. I don't listen to much jazz, so it's hard for me to evaluate them fairly. I wouldn't say that I enjoyed them especially, but I wasn't bored or annoyed either. When I do listen to jazz, I tend to prefer the late-career John Coltrane stuff that manages to dance on the border between total chaos and controlled improvization. I wouldn't say these guys managed that. The pieces seemed to have a pretty clear written melody that they would then take detours from. They even had written music with them. When they joined together to play a clear tune, I found myself more involved than I was for the rest of the set.

Larkin Grimm: She continues to impress me. The first two songs which just featured her playing dulcimer and singing were a bit difficult to get into, but once her "band" (a woman on violin and a guy on some Asian instrument I still don't know the name of) joined her, things picked up greatly, and she never lost me. She managed to get the entire audience singing along for the entirety "Ride that Cyclone", and it worked a lot better than I thought it would. The bulk of her set was from her latest album, Parplar, with the exception of the first two songs and another song called "Butcher". Vocal theatrics were even more present than they were the first time I saw her, but instead of being annoying, I found it quite captivating. If you told me that my favorite new musical discovery of 2009 would be a hippie female singer/songwriter with a penchant for high pitched yells, I woudln't believe you. But here we are.

And here's my attempt at a setlist for Larkin Grimm:

Unknown song
Another song I don't know
They Were Wrong
Ride that Cyclone
Parplar
Butcher
Durge
My Justine
Anger in your Liver
Hope for the Hopeless
Mina Minou

And finally. My review of the 3 Akron/Family sets. Here are my rough setlists:

Friday:

Quiet song off the first album that I've never seen them play. I think it might be the hidden track.
River
Unknown new song--Seth sings. Something about objects appearing closer than they are.
Lake Song (with a seperate jam at the end)
Ed is a Portal
Everyone is Guilty
Sun will Shine
Last year

Saturday:

Meek Warrior
River
Lake Song
Raise the Sparks
Ed is a Portal
Everyone is Guilty
Sun will Shine
Last Year
Phenomenon

Sunday:

Meek Warrior
River
unkown song from Friday
Gravelly Mountains of the Moon
Ed is a Portal
Drum machine song that Dana sings
That jam where Miles screams a lot
Everyone is Guilty
Sun will Shine
Last Year
Then they went outside, kept singing Last Year, and then I know you Rider and then Crickets...this went on way too long.

As you can see there was some difference between sets, but not really enough for my tastes. I hadn't heard Sun Will Shine before, and since it was really good, I liked hearing it all three nights. But there were a lot of songs they could have swapped out that I would have liked to have heard. I was surprised to not hear "They Will Appear" which they also didn't play new years, but played at both shows I was at last year (except for NYE of course).

But overall, all three nights were strong sets. New Years Eve, I was very disappointed to see them as a three piece (with backing horns and woodwinds) for most of their set. To me, Akron/Family is a band that needs two guitarists, and ideally 2 drummers and some other people to mix it up. Their brass/woodwind section helps fill out their sound wonderfully, but they tend to stay in the background. The exception was Saturday night when the tenor saxophonist and the alto saxphonist from Golden Sparkle Band joined them for a couple of noisy solos in Lake Song. But I think Seth has really gotten good at looping his guitar at the right times, and using his small keyboard to really fill out the sound.

I still think they were a stronger band when they played with Megafaun, but this was a vast improvement over New Years Eve where I felt their sound was just a bit too empty. I'm once again optimistic about the future of Akron/Family.

So the sets were all great. But I have a complaint with how they ended every one. The segue from "Sun Will Shine" to "Auld Lang Syne" and into "Last Year" was neat. Would have been neater on New Years though. On New Years Eve, I thought "Last Year" was something they had just thrown together before the show for the holiday. Apparently it's on their album and it's their new closer and sing along. That's really a shame because it's just not very good. It's just one line, "Last year was a hard year for such a long time. This year's gonna be ours," and they repeat it over and over. While the silly rap at the end of "Ed is a Portal" and the sing along "Love and Space" managed to get the audience in a joyous mood, this one is just a downer. And I honestly just get annoyed being asked to sing it for 5 goddamn minutes. It doesn't have the spiritual component that made those other closers so successful. Sunday night was the worst where they took it outside where no one could hear them and then added 2 more dull acoustic singalongs.

So yeah. I hope they drop that shit or find a better closer that's actually fun to sing along to. Their sets deserve better.