Daughter at Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, September 20, 2013

I can tell only in the most general of terms which bands are popular and which ones aren't.  I listen to music more or less in a vacuum and respond to those bands whose sound I enjoy and ignore those that I don't, but don't have much of a peer group around me to tell me who I should be listening to and who I shouldn't.  As a result, I'm not the best judge of which shows are going to attract a large audience and which shows are going to have a sparse turnout, other than by the size of the venue and the hype of the promoter.  I'm often surprised to find only a handful of people at shows I thought would sell out, and equally surprised to see capacity crowds for bands I imagined that only I would enjoy.  Last night was an instance of the latter. 

When I saw that the fine English indie-rock band Daughter would be playing at Variety Playhouse, a medium-capacity venue, it was the first I knew that at least someone considered them more popular than, say, Austra, who played last week at the far smaller Earl.  But I couldn't imagine that Daughter's melancholy, down-tempo songs would attract all that large of an audience, so I didn't buy tickets in advance and only showed up at the box office about 15 minutes after the doors had opened.

I was surprised to see a line in front of the Playhouse that extended well past the adjacent Elmyr restaurant and far down the block, one of the longest lines I've seen in front of the Variety Playhouse.  I was easily able to buy a ticket (the line was for entry and not for purchase), but by the time I finally got inside, my preferred, usual spot in Variety Playhouse - first riser, right-hand side - was taken.  No problem, I found a suitable spot at the first riser, left-had side, but my first surprise of the night was how large a crowd Daughter had attracted for their first Atlanta appearance. 

My second surprise was that much of  the audience had apparently come for the opening act, another London band, a folk-rock ensemble called Bear's Den.  I had never heard of Bear's Den, but they had apparently played last week at the huge Mumford & Sons concert held in Centennial Park, arguably Atlanta's largest venue (Piedmont Park, where Music Midtown is going down this weekend, could make an equally legitimate claim as the city's largest venue).  Even the band seemed surprised by their enthusiastic reception, and the audience's quiet attentiveness while the songs were played. 

My guess is that Bear's Den must really have nailed it at the Mumfords' show, whom they sound quite like in many respects, although the NY Times Magazine notes that they've built up a cult-like following on both sides of the Atlantic with their relentless touring over the past year.  

The audience was predominantly quite young, even by rock concert standards - kids these days certainly do love their folk rock - but I was encouraged to see quite a few older folks as well, until I realized that they were mostly all there as chaperons for their younger charges.  In any event, the young audience seemed to really eat up every note of Bear's Den music, which actually was quite good, a sort of stripped-down version (they're a trio) of Mumford & Sons without the cloying over-earnestness of the latter. Further, the band appeared not only to be genuinely touched by their reception, but also to be a genuinely nice, sincere group of guys.

Bear's Dan are supporting Daughter on their North American tour, and the audience stayed for the headliner and gave them the same unconditional approval and attention as they had for Bear's Den.  The crowd was as quiet for both bands as I've heard at a rock show in quite a while, which was fortunate as Daughter's music alternates between loud and quieter, more intimate passages.    

I've been listening to Daughter for about a year now and think very highly of them, but was still pleasantly surprised to hear how much fuller their live sound was compared to the more bare, almost minimalistic approach of their recordings. Guitarist Igor Haefeli added many lovely orchestral flourishes to singer Elena Tonra's songs, often bowing his electric guitar to sonic effect. Normally, the difference in sound between the recordings of a favorite band and their live performance causes consternation not jubilation, but one could not help but appreciate Daughter's live sound, which lies somewhere between The xx and The Sundays at their prime.    

Dave seems to have really liked them, and was he hitting on Elena at the end?  Creepy.

Elena's sweet, almost shy, stage presence was a welcome relief to Daughter's lyrical material, which typically involves dark subject matter and a gloomy, pessimistic view on life ("This one's really depressing," Elena announced - or warned - before one song).  It seemed to take her a while to warm up to the audience, but as she gained her confidence bantering back and forth a little, she emerged as a somewhat introverted but gifted performer, genuinely glad to be playing the music she loves to an appreciative crowd. This was refreshing coming as it does from a singer who declares "I want you so much but I hate your guts" in her song Landfill.  

This was truly great stuff and Daughter played as fine a set as I've heard in a while, and I've heard a lot of sets (over 75 by my count) since Labor Day weekend.  This is a really great band, and the exciting thing is they're just getting started.  Headlining the Variety Playhouse is not a bad way to make your first appearance in Atlanta.  

The band closed their nearly hour-long set with an encore cover of Daft Punk's Get Lucky.

The rain is pouring down today - the first rain I've encountered in Atlanta since coming back from the Northwest - which must be wreaking havoc on Music Midtown.  Poor Atlanta - first, it rains non-stop during its inaugeral Shaky Knees festival last spring, and now it rains during its signature Music Midtown.  The irony that it rained only one out of ten days in the Pacific Northwest during Bumbershoot and MFNW is not lost on me. In any event, it doesn't look like appropriate weather for today's East Atlanta Strut either, so it looks like I get to relax today, watch some football, and catch up on missed episodes of Sons of Anarchy.