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Ólöf Arnalds at T.T. the Bear's
Sports Redux: That's More Like It
It takes some old dudes to make the Middle East shut up.
When we arrived at the venue last night to see the Sea and Cake, it was throbbing with conversation to such a degree that we could barely hear the folksy stylings of Death Vessel's Joel Thibodeau, who just might be the lovechild of Bjork and Devendra Banhart, with a little bit of Native American thrown in. We walked to the bar and inched toward the stage to the tune of "Block My Eye" and "Jitterakadie." Members of the crowd were chatting, watching Thibodeau, and attentively hanging on for the last minutes of that Celtics game; Pierce's basket elicited a cheer even from the folk fans.
Thibodeau played alone, but created a significant presence on stage, progressing from gentle melodies to discordant thrashes of sound. A few notes touched on bluegrass, and we felt at first as though we were on a pleasant walk through a meadow on a summer day, rather than escaping near-winter cold in a crowded Boston-area basement. Then the summer day turned stormy, with Thibodeau's sound seemingly plummeting toward hell in a death vessel. Even Thibodeau's remarkably feminine voice didn't dispel the hardness of the music toward the end of his set.
As Death Vessel finished up, his hardcore fans fled the front of the room, leaving space for Sea and Cake devotees to move up—and shut up. From older men (several of whom bore an uncanny resemblance to Sam Prekop himself--is Sam populating the audience with clones?) at the concert alone to groups of X-handed kids who weren't born when Shrimp Boat formed, the no-longer-Celtics-distracted crowd waited in excited (and silent) anticipation of a pleasant Sea and Cake experience.
Did the Sea and Cake keep up its pleasant reputation? Find out after the jump! Seaside cake from Manassas Cakery.
As Pitchfork notes, "the Sea and Cake are the definition of consistent and singular." And the band didn't disappoint last night at the Middle East. Playing new songs from the decidedly non-disconcerting Car Alarm and old favorites from The Biz and other albums. Sam Prekop sounded more like Robert Smith than we've ever heard him sound before, making the evening feel a little blue and Curey. The band began with some more forcefully poppy tunes, then expanded out into slick, syncopated rhythms. Our underage friends with the X hands leaned on each other during slower songs, while even the old folks swayed to the more upbeat tunes. The Sea and Cake knew just when to tighten up its sound for some excitement and when to lay back and let us groove.
All in all, it was a pleasant experience—but not very challenging. We do love the Sea and Cake, but we've loved them about the same for over a decade now. Will the band become anything new in the future? Death Vessel's eerie opening falsetto made us wonder—what if the Sea and Cake got girl? A female singer could lend an extra dimension to the band, as would another instrument or two. We like what we hear, but we want a little more. Seashell adornments, some triangle, a tambourine—just some kind of umbrella on the Sea and Cake cocktail. Maybe next time?
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