Rage, rage against the constraints of the Music Farm sound system and the corporate sponsorship (singing the Jack Daniel’s song with no stage lights was a cheeky touch)! Play that rock ‘n’ roll like it’s a honky-tonk, just sloppy enough to keep ‘em interested! Then turn ‘em around and stick a cowboy boot full of old-fashioned good tunes right in their earholes!
So, uh, that’s how Band of Horses went tonight. Current Awendaw resident and Carolina-bred lead singer Ben Bridwell came onstage wearing a Sera Cahoone (Carissa’s Wierd bandmate, drummer on BoH’s 2006 debut album Everything All the Time, Sub Pop labelmate, and the creator of last year’s subtly heartbreaking “Couch Song”) T-shirt, introduced the band, then waited as the house music came back up and his fellow Horses made final adjustments before launching into the first song of the night, a slow, twinkling bit of atmosphere that I didn’t recognize but which was quite pretty.
The crowd seemed both bemused and amused by the proceedings — around the third song, I heard a guy behind me say, “yeah, I guess they play this band on the radio sometimes or something?” — but any of the unconverted quickly warmed to the sextet. It was the aural equivalent to sitting down to a big table full of Southern comfort food — a rousing “Monsters” here, a forceful “First Song” there, a few new songs (featuring solid vocals from Bridwell that strongly recalled Jim James from My Morning Jacket) peppered throughout the mix, including the barn-dance-y banger that closed out the show, and the soothing crowd-pleaser (hey, we are in Carolina, after all) “Part One.”
Songs weren’t the only things making their first onstage appearances tonight; it was also BoH’s first show with their new bassist, Bill Reynolds from Asheville band The Blue Rags (thanks, Ballard!). It’s been a wild year for the Horses, who’ve been on a distinctly upward trajectory since the winsome Everything All the Time came out last March. After the album’s favorable reception across the blogosphere and in numerous papers of record, the band set off on tour last summer and in the midst of it went their separate ways with cofounding member Mat Brooke.
They didn’t have to shoot the whole band, though, and the group cleaned up in 2006 end-of-year polls; swept the PLUG Awards (think indie Grammys) by earning nods for Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Americana Album of the Year; and recently (as in, a week ago) were named as finalists for this year’s peer-judged Shortlist Music Prize — they’re up against Tom Waits, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Joanna Newsom, Hot Chip, Beirut, Cat Power, Girl Talk, Regina Spektor, and Spank Rock.
In the meantime, they moved into Kevin Taylor’s old house, had a few beers, watched some football, and made nice with the locals: tuba master/photographer/pool creator Clint Fore (a.k.a. Clint4) played bass for BoH on their Australian tour, they brought Cary Ann Hearst and the Gun Street Girls on a Southeastern U.S. tour in March, and tonight’s openers (who I missed, ARGH!) A Decent Animal will abandon the Atlantic for a West Coast jaunt with BoH in July.
To read more about what Bridwell and co. have been up to since they headed back home, check out former City Paper writer (and current law-learnin’ badass) Ashford Tucker’s fun and funny Pitchfork interview from January. Thanks for the free show, Jack Daniel’s! Here’s hoping for another Studio No. 7 party (featuring Spoon, mayhap?) in Charleston soon!
(Download/listen to the original demo versions of “The Funeral,” “Our Swords,” and “Wicked Gil” from Everything All the Time here, plus “Dingle,” a song that didn’t make the final cut.)
–sm
