I can tell only in the most general of terms which bands are popular and which ones aren't. Friday night, I went to The Variety Playhouse expecting a small crowd for Daughter and was surprised to see the longest line in front of the venue that I can recall. Last night, I went back to the Playhouse to see the band Okkervil River afraid that the show might have sold out. Over the years, the band has released at least seven critically acclaimed albums and reportedly have a near cult-like following. I was fearing a sell out but walked into a near-empty theater.
In fact, as soon as I entered the venue, I thought that I might have made a terrible mistake. This wasn't the place for me, I thought. The few people who were there, about 40 minutes before show time, were sitting comfortably in the theater seats or at tables set up on the risers. No one was standing in front of the stage. Worse, the PA system was playing some of the worst "adult contemporary" soft-rock mulch I had ever heard. Sound Hound couldn't even recognize the songs. This was all too polite and date-night oriented for me, and besides, there were less than 50 people inside. Where was the rest of the audience? I thought about cutting my losses there and then, despite the ticket price ($22.50), despite the cost of parking ($7), and just turning around and leaving, but wisely, as it turns out, instead I just took a seat (first riser, right) and waited to see what happened, suffering through that awful background music.
What happened was people slowly trickled in, and eventually, with about 10 minutes left before show time, a group of about 6 or 8 people walked up to the stage. I joined them, and several more followed. Finally, the opener, Torres, took the stage, and invited more to come down from their seats and join us by the stage.
Torres is Nashville's Mackenzie Scott and her band. I really didn't know anything about her before the show, other than she had been tapped by Daughter to join them on the upcoming UK leg of their current tour. She plays raw, primal indie rock, accompanying her fierce voice with a biting electric guitar. Don't be misled by the video below - even though she hands off the guitar solo near the end, she did plenty of shredding herself on the Playhouse stage last night. The audience, which was slowly growing in numbers, was spellbound, and you could have heard a pin drop between songs. Scott even mentioned that she appreciated the attentiveness, but that it was also a little unnerving.
This is really great stuff. Pitchfork gave her debut album a good review, rating it an 8.1, but she's even better live for the very qualities that Pitchfork was praising (the controlled aggression, the apparent fearlessness, and the quality of that voice). She actually would compliment Daughter very well on tour - they made a wise choice selecting her for their upcoming UK dates.
Bonus points: Scott's parents were in the Variety Playhouse audience.
It seemed like the place was filling up, although I could no longer tell for sure, as I was now right at the center edge of the stage, buried deep in the surrounding crowd. But the energy level had picked up significantly, and it seemed as if the audience had grown proportionally.
Okkervil River took the stage a little before 10:00 pm. What a terrific show! Will Sheff led the band in a high-energy set of anthemic indie-rock songs, drawing from their extensive catalog. Highlights, and they're almost too numerous to mention, at least for me included a haunting, stripped-down version of Kansas City from 2002's Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See, and a rousing Lost Coastlines with an enthusiastic audience sing along, which closed the set after 75 minutes before the three-song encore.
There was so much to like about this show. The six- to seven-member band included a second guitar, keyboards, bass, drums, and a multi-instrumentalist providing violin, trumpet, trombone, or whatever the song called for, and they backed Sheff with as much showmanship and enthusiasm as he exhibited. The sound quality was great, and from my position near the front of the stage, I could even hear the sounds of the different instruments coming from different directions.
The band is touring behind their newest album, The Silver Gymnasium, a collection of songs reminiscing about Sheff's childhood home of Meriden, New Hampshire. The new material fit seamlessly into the set with the older songs, including It Was My Season and On A Balcony which opened the set, and Walking Without Frankie, which kicked off the encore. In all, the band worked almost all of the songs from the new album into the set list, without that awkward moment of losing the audience's attention until an old, familiar song was played (see The Head and The Heart).
By the end of the set, the audience had packed the area in front of the stage, and any memories of my initial impression of a sedentary crowd listening to adult-contemporary songs had long since vanished.
This was my first time seeing Okkervil River (as well as Torres), but I can guarantee you I will not miss a chance to see them (or Torres) again.
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