The occasional festival aside, I usually like to pace myself, but when The Earl offers back-to-back performances on consecutive nights consisting of the debut of Algiers followed by the return of Other Lives, you just have to go to both, right?
We'll get to Other Lives in a minute, because last night's show opened with a band called Riothorse Royale, of whom we had not previously heard.
It turns out that not unlike Algiers, they're relatively new. Riothorse Royale are LA's Madi Diaz and NYC's Emily Greene, two independent singer/songwriters who were drawn together as "super-scorned women by bad boyfriends" according to Diaz. They held nothing back on their opener, The Guest House, their layered harmonies filling The Earl's space and exploring every nook and cranny of the sonic territory therein, and they kept that level of commitment and intensity going throughout their entire set.
It was a joy and a revelation to discover them. I'm looking forward to hearing them again, and watching this collaborative project evolve.
We have not seen Other Lives since their Rocktober 2011 performance at The Drunken Unicorn. Since that time, a lot has happened - they toured the world supporting Radiohead, including a date at Atlanta's cavernous Philips Arena; they moved from their native Norman, Oklahoma to Portland, Oregon; they released a fine new album, Rituals, a worthy follow-up to 2011's Tamer Animals; and they've experienced some personnel changes, most notably the loss of cellist/multi-instrumentalist Jenny Hsu.
The quintet that took the stage at The Earl, then, was slightly different that the one that played The Drunken Unicorn, and many of the songs from Tamer Animals had been rearranged to accommodate the lack of cello. But not to worry - between the guitars, bass, drums, tympani, keyboards, trumpet, violins, vibraphone, banjo, harmonium, and other instruments, the band still sounded every bit as orchestral as they had in the past.
They opened with Easy Way Out, just as they do in the session video below.
After Easy Way Out and a few other songs from Rituals, Other Lives launched into As I Lay My Head Down from Tamer Animals, and I have to admit it took me a while to get used to the older without the cello parts holding down the lower range. Two violins playing one cello part does not sound the same as one cello. But after adjusting my mind a little bit (the sequential taking over for the veridical), I enjoyed the older songs in the new format as much as I enjoyed the newer songs, which is to say, a lot.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Mooney was as busy as before, sometimes playing trumpet and keyboards simultaneously, or switching between guitar and vibes, or adding whatever it was that was needed at that point in the composition.
The most distinctive element in Other Lives music, of course, is Jesse Tabish's voice, and he sounded every bit as midwestern and doleful as ever, which is to say perfect for Other Lives' songs.
The band played a surprisingly long set - I had lost track of time, but it seemed like their set lasted well over an hour and their encore included at least three full songs. I don't know whether or not the show was a sell-out, but the audience was satisfyingly large for The Earl, including a larger-than-usual number of people who had arrived just as or even before the doors had opened and patiently waited at the front of the stage for nearly an hour for Riothorse Royale to take the stage and start off the evening.
A great night, and combined with the previous night's set, a great weekend of music.
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