Wednesday May 6, 2009, Bowery Ballroom: Akron/Family

So in the last four weeks I've seen my three favorite live bands. And all three times I've walked away somewhat disappointed. With Oneida, it wasn't their fault, I was extremely tired, and the venue was suffocatingly humid and hot. And Acid Mothers Temple basically did what I expected them to do. But Akron/Family I had high hopes for, and they kind of let me down.

Why you ask? Well lets start with the set list:

They Will Appear
River
The Alps and Their Orange Evergreen
Gravelly Mountains of the Moon
Ed is a Portal
Creatures
Everyone is Guilty
Sun will Shine
Last Year
Woodie Guthrie's America
Crickets
Freestyle audience jam that I didn't stick around for

If you look at the setlists from the last shows, you'll notice that there's not a lot here that they didn't play those nights, and some great songs that I've been hearing a lot of were left out. Lake Song and Raising the Sparks were especially missed. I thought that they were going into Lake song towards the end of The Alps and their Orange Evergreen, but it didn't happen. Just about everything that bothered me about the last shows was present last night in greater quantity.

But what really had me disappointed was the length of the actual set. I've grown very accustomed to two hour sets from these guys. Not counting anything after Last Year, the set couldn't have been an hour and a half. From most bands these days, it wouldn't be bad, but Akron/Family has set the bar pretty high, and they did not live up to it. Even more alarming is that this is similar to the previous 4 shows I've seen where I just sort of assumed the shortened sets were due to circumstances. But no. Apparently now that they are a real three piece band (with horns/woodwinds backing them), they only play hour and a half sets. From a lot of bands, this would be great, but when amazing jams are getting left out of the set, it's a real bummer.

And then there's how they've been ending the shows. I was briefly excited to see Dana go back to the drums and Seth pick his electric guitar back up after Woodie Guthrie's America. I thought they might play a real encore. But no. It was Crickets. The most boring and useless song Akron/Family has ever performed. And then it got worse. Because for some reason the audience is supposed to sing the final melody over and over. This went on for what seemed like forever. Eventually some girls at front got impatient (not that I wasn't there 5 minutes before them, but all I could think to do was groan) and started stomping and chanting. Eventually this caught on and we got a pretty neat audience/band jam in the middle of the place. I might have been more into it if it hadn't taken so long to get there and the actual set had been better. Instead, I just felt kind of cheated and mystified at how people could be so into it.

I hope this doesn't mean the magic is wearing off for me. Nearly 3 years ago, before Love is Simple was released, I saw them perform at the Bowery, and it was one of the best shows I have ever seen, if not the best ever. They closed with Ed is a Portal like they always did in those days, and while the closing rap had never excited me, they somehow managed to turn the entire audience to mush by the end of the performance. Was I witnessing something similar last week, but unable to take part myself? Or was it really not as good? I don't have an answer, so this review is done.