Writing to you live from Eatontown, New Jersey, where we’ve just checked into our hotel for All Tomorrow’s Parties I’ll Be Your Mirror curated by Portishead! How’s that for a long festival title? There will be a nice in depth photo recap of that event coming next week, but until then, let’s discuss the greatness I got to witness last night, that being Fleet Foxes and The Walkmen at the beautiful Hill Auditorium in my very own college town of Ann Arbor, the perfect setting for a show such as this.
I’ve been waiting for this show for months and was excited to see the renovated Hill Auditorium (well, renovated years ago, but haven’t been since then), though I was sad to see that the large walking area right in front of the stage, perfect for picture taking, no longer existed, hence every picture from 2 angles. But anyway, I’d seen The Walkmen once before at the Pike Room, a tiny venue, where they completely went full force the whole time. This show was completely different, but also really great in its own way. They focused on lots of their slower and quieter tunes, even omitting their bigger tunes like “The Rat” and “In The New Year”. But their more subdued sound was the perfect one for the incredible acoustics of Hill Auditorium, and it all came through crystal clear. This show made me remember why I loved The Walkmen and exactly how much I did love them. In fact, I listened to them the entire flight here today.
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Fleet Foxes took the stage shortly after much to the delight of the crowd full of plaid, plaits and parents. I’d only seen the band once before, at the 2008 Pitchfork Fest in the middle of a hot, sticky day, and their sound was incredible even then. The acoustics of Hill Auditorium again worked to the benefit of the band, not that they needed any extra help, because perhaps the most impressive part of their live show is their ability to harmonize in a live setting and sound nearly as solid as the recorded versions of their songs. The stripped down “Montezuma”, with just an acoustic guitar and three sets of vocals, was a highlight for me, as was “Bedouin Dress”, my current favorite track from Helplessness Blues and “Ragged Wood”, the one song from their self-titled album that I hadn’t heard live before. And with the band’s 7 members, many playing multiple instruments, the sound was bigger than big. I think the MVP award goes to the band member whose name I don’t know, but I think I counted 6 different instruments that he played throughout the show, including upright bass, tenor sax, flute and guitar – a bunch of instruments that don’t really have much to do with each other. The worst part of the show was that I had to restrain myself from singing along to every song at the top of my lungs. Instead, I think I just sang quietly along with my hand over my mouth so nobody could see, because that’s cool too.
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