I missed Bellman Barker because I spend my life attempting to make money, but I did have a somewhat lengthy conversation with Tom discussing the local music scene, etc. If you don’t know Tom, you should – he looks like Buddy Holly and went to Yale. And because there are no pictures:
I arrived in the middle of Love as Laughter’s sethttp://www.myspace.com/loveaslaughter. I’d never heard them before and at first glance Sam’s (the lead singer) lavender suspenders stole my attention, but I was soon distracted by their sound – a slow melody, heavy guitar and drums, sometimes drowning the vocals. The keys added a certain je ne sais que that most Americana bands are missing…when you could hear it. I’m not sure if it was the sound system or them, but once I focused on the lyrics, I was bought.
A band so simple retains a certain elegance on stage, even if they’re only performing for twenty people. These are the type of boys that you go home to visit, they’re the ones you’ve gone to school with forever and by God you’re not sure how they made it this far but they did, and you want to kick back, turn on the game and eat wings with them – these are the guys that you’re mom would like. At the end of their set Sam informed them that “we’re called Love as Laughter, I don’t know if you know that…it’s going to be the last Cave Singers show in a while, so, uhh…I’m going to party really hard.”
It was a shame the weather was so shitty, these guys deserve more exposure than they got Thursday.
The Cave Singers are what I envision the product of Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and Conor Oberst to be. All the while I kept thinking of geese, and fields, and these guys running through the fields with the geese, and then taking a break to play their music in a barn. I’m pretty sure that their album could be the soundtrack to Flying Away Home. (Yes, I do like that movie). I think that they would agree considering this is their album’s cover:
Their sound is certainly a throwback to the old-timers, the one’s that created this sound, even the vocals are reminiscent of Dylan – a little bit rough, but in all the right places.
Unfortunately I was unable to stay for their whole set due to a tornado warning near my house.
You are a bloody vagina. Yeah, Love as Laughter–phew, what suspenders! Those are the kind of things that I look for in a band: their trendy clothing. Furthermore, you made these bands (the ones you even heard) sound like asshole frat guys who play guitar on the side between baling hay, eating BBQ and following the road that goes on forever, the party that never ends. What? These aren’t country rock darlings on CMT. These aren’t good ole boys getting frisky in the big city. And perhaps most importantly, The Cave Singers do not sound like Willie Nelson mixed with Dylan mixed with Conor Oberst. If you did stay for the whole show–which it is amazing you can review a show you only saw one third of–you would see that they are more like a strange BLUES band. Their songs are pattern-oriented and often in pentatonic, the vocals are crafted carefully & not given in that Dylanesque sort of wheeze or that Bright Eyesian sort of I-can’t-sing-I-completely-suck-but-I-want-you-to-love-&-pity-me quiver. Instead, they were pretty darn unique and isn’t that what hipster websites like this are trying to find out first so they can look cool the longest? Oh yeah, and “unable to stay for the whole set due to tornado warning…” That’s fucking rock & roll!!!
May 12, 2008 at 5:42 pmit took me three times as long to get home as it usually would because of the weather and i had a flat tire when i got home, thank you very much. i was lucky i wasn’t in an accident.
you don’t have to agree with anything i say, and i wanted to stay longer, but it’s not always an option.
i’m glad you enjoyed the show.
May 13, 2008 at 8:05 amhey this is mr. t, love as laughter’s manager. thanks for the confusing but positive review of the boys’ show. Bill, your epic masterpiece of sarcastic wit was much appreciated. this will be blogged on the band’s blog, loveaslaughter.blogspot.com bill, you also won a free t-shirt if we can figure out how to get you one.- mr.t
May 25, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Good stuff. LAL has been a great band for many years–their late 90s output is amazing. Why they get no hype is confusing to me…I guess they are too rock-and-roll to excite indie rockers and too poppy to be a garage band. They just kick ass.
May 12, 2008 at 3:09 pm