Your Favorite College Band: Okkervil River Live in Berlin
Everything went beautifully on Monday night, right from the supporting act.
The audience turns quiet and attentive as soon as Julie Doiron opens her mouth – I know such comparison isn’t fair to either artists, but boy! Does she remind me of Feist…what a great voice. The drummer (I forgot his name!) really shines too when he switches roles with Doiron and takes over the lead vocal and the bass. Together they play for about half an hour or more and you can see they’re really have a good time on stage.
What strikes me the most about Okkervil River is how unassuming everyone is. During Black Sheep Boy, when Will Sheff puts a finger to his lips drawing a quiet sshhhh to quiet the chattering coming from the bar at the back, it’s so effortless and endearing, it’s like your buddy telling you, dude this is good stuff, listen up! The best part is everyone in the audience starts shushing the voice coming from the back too. Drummer Travis Nelson is just an energy ball of fire; just watch his hair fly and listen to how his drumbeat follows Will tightly and takes the band wherever it wants to. Bassist Patrick Pestorius plays a mean bass and…remember that background vocal “hiding from the sun he was hiding from the sun…burning everyone it was burning everyone” in The Latest Toughs? Patrick does that! I absolutely love it. (I’m going to put the lyrics at the end of the post because it’s just such a great song). In fact Travis and Patrick are my favorite at the show because, well the two being pretty much right in front of me and me being very noticeable (I guess?), we are having so much fun with each other exchanging glances, smiles and even grimaces. Seriously, it’s like back in college again watching your favorite college band play where you’re best buddies with a couple of the band members: casual, intimate and full of excitement and your good old buddy humor. Big kids these guys may be, this is no ordinary college band. Will has written some amazing lyrics and the band has created some really complex tunes to match Will’s forceful vocal. This is not a comparison OK! But if you like The Decemberists give Okkervil River a listen.
Oh yeah, Patrick gave me that chipped drumstick from Travis:)
Julie Doiron
A Girl in Port
A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene
Plus Ones / The Latest Toughs
All the Latest Toughs by Okkervil River
All the latest toughs, you’ve got to shrug them off or shut them off. With ten-thousand-time-told truths, you’ve still got to ask for proof. Ask for proof, because if you’re dying to be led they’ll lead you up the hill in chains to their popular refrains until your slaughter’s been arranged, my little lamb, and it’s much too late to talk the knife out of their hands. Well, I woke up on a foggy morning. Hiding from the sun, he was hiding from the sun. But it came out and it shot its rays down. Burning everyone, it was burning everyone. But they were dying, anyway, to turn to ash, to feel their feelings flash and finally fade away, in a fabulous and fiery display. Look, though, I don’t know what notes you want to hear played, I can’t think what lines you’d like me to sing or say, and I’m not sure what subjects you want mentioned. So pause and add your own intentions. We’ve included a form you can print out and fill out and send below:
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All the latest toughs, well, we have seen that stuff, and we have seen enough blood in dying coughs, which means that we have lost. We have lost, and if you’re crying to be tossed they’ll toss you down the oubliette with all the old things that you let yourself forget because you’d like to love a star who’d throw you down below the ground he thinks you are.
Okkervil River is touring Europe; check them out!
11/30/2007 - Spark Club @ Debaser Medis, Stockholm, SE
12/01/2007 - John Dee, Oslo, NO
12/04/2007 - Pressure Point, Brighton, GB
12/05/2007 - Liverpool Academy, Liverpool, GB
12/06/2007 - Whelan’s, Dublin, IE
12/07/2007 - Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, GB
12/08/2007 - Barfly, Cardiff, GB
12/09/2007 - Luminaire, London, GB
12/10/2007 - Luminaire, London, GB
02/02/2008 - Empire, Belfast, IE
02/03/2008 - Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, GB
02/05/2008 - Scala, London, GB
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