Concert Review: Kayo Dot CD Release Party

Last week Bostonist arrived at an almost-empty TT the Bear's during Deertick's opening set of earnest acoustic guitar ballads. After an almost-pint of Newcastle in a plastic cup, we were drawn over to the stage by the upright bass and unapologetically fey vocals of the next act, Nat Baldwin. He made Bostonist think of Final Fantasy a few octaves lower, or a more mournful Joanna Newsom a few more octaves down.

At one point, we think Baldwin sang the words "This is a test of quiet over loud," which, later, seemed to sum up the entire evening. (We also thought that Deertick had sung the words "You've lost some weight," but we're pretty sure we're wrong about that.)

When CJ Boyd took the stage, he announced that he was going to play some bass and his mission was to "put you in a bad mood" and "make you cry. You." He did play bass, as promised, over looped beatboxing and harmonica, but the mood he put us in was more languorous than lacrimose. Accumulated layers of instrumentation and chanted vocals built up to fine, hypnotic effect when he was accompanied by a cellist whom he beckoned onstage and introduced as Sarah: "We play together in a sextet in Nashville. Also, sometimes we make out."

The Believer once described TT's rather cozy stage as "approximately the size of a napkin" in a club "exactly the size of a restaurant-style napkin holder." Bostonist admired the efficiency with which Kayo Dot set up all seven members of the band on that stage, with their many instruments: through the course of their performance, Toby Driver played a guitar, a keyboard, and a clarinet, among other things. Kayo Dot mostly played new material from their just-released second album, Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue, ranging from dense, guitar-heavy arrangements to plucked strings, drones, and something that sounded like a Geiger counter, and working their way back to a satisfying cacaphony. Driver has retained the seraphic falsetto but dropped the "death" vocals of Kayo Dot's earlier incarnation as the prog-metal band Maudlin of the Well. He seems to have found an indie-rock-esque yowl somewhere between these two extremes, which worked best when clawing its way through the complex tangle of trumpet, bass, violin, guitar, bells, and drums. Sometimes his compositions seemed to get lost in the din, but they always found their way back out. If this show was a test, both Quiet and Loud passed with flying colors.

Post and photo contributed by C. Fernsebner