The Walkmen/The Dodos
Brooklyn Masonic Temple
12.16.08
The day I first heard “You & Me” the words album of the year came to mind. As a longtime fan of The Walkmen, I felt it might be their finest work, and there hadn’t been a more perfect record released during the year. Over time I realized I was not alone, as the record began receiving almost universal praise, and the band’s popularity started moving back in that direction they once seemed headed. Though The Walkmen haven’t gotten the attention that TV on the Radio or Deerhunter have gotten for their records, “You & Me” continues to pop up on year-end best of lists, and definitely still sits right atop my own list.
As good as the record is, they’ve always been the type of band that is at their best live. On Tuesday night, they played in front of a packed house at Brooklyn Masonic Temple, and made a strong case for concert of the year.
From the minute they started playing set opener, “Dónde está la Playa,” it was apparent that the band had a little something extra for the Brooklyn crowd. The mood setting opener was followed by new fan favorite “In The New Year.” This was the first instance that singer Hamilton Leitheuser got to display how damn strong his voice has become. As relaxed as ever, he reminded me of a boxer, slowly dancing around the ring, patiently waiting before unloading that massive blow to knockout his opponent. After that 1-2 punch, it never let up, with Leitheuser and The Walkmen putting together a brilliant set loaded with material off of “You & Me.” From the sparse guitar and vocal only “New Country” to the rock assault of “All Hands on the Bad Cook,” they displayed an incredible range, while never once wearing out their welcome.
As much as the intensity of the “The Rat” always manages to be the biggest crowd pleaser, “All Hands on the Bad Cook” was the performance of the night. Opening with Paul Maroon’s nervously rhythmic guitar structure, and Leitheuser’s screaming vocals, the song transformed itself. An old western style piano comes into the song, and all of a sudden Leitheuser is singing with a old time croon, rather than the punk howl with which he started. But the shining moment was whenever Leitheuser sang the chorus with that unmatched intensity and earth shattering conviction.
As if their songs weren’t great enough, they gave us an extra holiday treat when they came back out for an encore and played “White Christmas” before closing with the excellent “Another One Goes By.”
I would have been more than happy only seeing The Walkmen, but luckily a band nearly as great opened the show. This year, I’ve been nearly obsessed with The Dodos “Visiter” nearly as much as the latest Walkmen record, and much like The Walkmen, they’ve proven that they can bring something extra to the table in the live setting. It took a song or 2 for the sound mix to sound right, but once it did, they couldn’t have been better. Building up from an long instrumental opening, “Jodi” was again the highlight of their set, displaying all the greatest aspects of this band, from the creative drumming of Logan Kroeber to Meric Long’s bluesy guitar plucking to the trashcan smashing of percussionist Joe Haener. At the most intense moment of the song, while bashing the trashcan, the chunk of dented metal came loose from it’s stand. Haener grabbed hold of it and kept with the beat, while struggling to get the right grip of it.
Seeing these bands play together was as good as any gift I’ll get this X-mas. I see a lot of good shows, but it’s very rare to see one that so well captures all the things that make music so wonderful.