The first time I saw — or heard of, for that matter — Austin’s Okkervil River, they were opening for John Vanderslice at the Bottleneck and they were playing for approximately 10 people. Their second album,
Down the River of Golden Dreams, was just out, and they played their set with a packed-house intensity. At one point, frontman Will Sheff climbed on top of the bass drum and almost fell off. It didn’t phase him. He went right back to singing as if the person he wrote the song for were in the audience. That’s Sheff’s great gift. He’s a magnificent lyricist, and, based on Okkervil River’s consistently excellent discography, he knows his way around a tune. But it’s how he sells his songs that makes him special. It’s what has made every Okkervil River show I’ve been to memorable, and it’s what made their Monday night show at The Granada excellent despite the fact that technical difficulties threatened to rip the show apart.
Seriously, it was like every damn thing went wrong. Sheff broke a string on his acoustic guitar during “John Allyn Smith Sails,” and then his electric replacement crapped out halfway through “We Need a Myth.” Then something onstage caught on fire during “So Come Back, I Am Waiting.” Despite Sheff’s palpable annoyance and his self-deprecating refrain, “Trust me, despite what it looks like, we are a professional rock band,” the band didn’t really have too much to worry about. The musicians are professionals, as evidenced by the fact that after the electric guitar died, another was brought out, the distortion was cranked way up, and Sheff & Co. totally annihilated “The Valley.” That blissfully chaotic take on the opening track from their latest LP, I Am Very Far, brought a sort of vital and desperate intimacy to the show. If the band hadn’t connected with the audience yet, they sure as hell did on that one.
On Sheff’s solo acoustic rendition of
Black Sheep Boy’s “A Stone,” the crowd was dead quiet (at least as soon as the beefy Granada bouncer at stage left told some obscenely drunk kid talking about the Killers to, I can only assume, shut up or face getting thrown out the back door into a puddle, like they do in the movies). People were literally crying. The crowd got worked and they loved it. Or maybe that’s an optimistic assumption, because my insides are clearly made of something gooey and sappy. But the nakedness of that rendition was more than just lovely. It showed the sort of confidence Sheff has as a songwriter and performer that makes Okkervil River such an engaging live act.
When things weren’t breaking or getting caught on fire, Okkervil River exemplified the consummate professionalism they have clearly worked hard to build. This is easily the tightest lineup they’ve had to date. The songs from Black Sheep Boy — of which there was an inordinate amount, not that I’m complaining, though — sounded better than ever, and Sheff really couldn’t have put together a more capable group of musicians to turn the songs built around his acoustic guitar into indie-rock powerhouse jams. Sheff believes in his songs. And when he’s onstage, he never looks jaded or like he’s being put-upon to have to go on tour and play his songs to people. He brings the sort of sincerity that feels like it shouldn’t be hard to find but surprisingly is these days. It’s refreshing to see someone sing with conviction, and even more so when the songs are coming from one of the strongest lyricists in the game.
Baltimore’s
Wye Oak opened, and I feel like I’ve seen Wye Oak open more shows in the last year than I've seen bands living in this town. This is the third time I’ve seen the group open for a band (it previously opened for Okkervil River spin-off Shearwater, and also the Mountain Goats), and though I haven’t actually given their albums a proper listen, I feel like I have. Frontwoman Jenn Wasner’s throaty, dream-pop-tinged vocals sync with her equally throaty (read: lots of sick riffs and veering in and out of borderline metal breakdowns), shoegaze-influenced guitar style. Drummer/multi-instrumentalist Andy Stack lays down an unobtrusive and efficient base for Wasner, and the chemistry breeds excellent songs. Wye Oak is right about at that point where it has outgrown its opening-band status (not quite yet, though, as it's opening for Explosions in the Sky in Kansas City on October 12) and should be headlining its own gigs sooner rather than later.
Set List
Wake and Be Fine
For Real
Rider
Black
Piratess
Song of Our So-Called Friend
John Allyn Smith Sails
We Need a Myth
The Valley
A Stone
So Come Back, I Am Waiting
Westfall
Your Past Life As a Blast
Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe
Lost Coastlines
A Girl in Port
Unless It’s Kicks
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