Live DC: Fleet Foxes / Blitzen Trapper @ The Cat

March 27, 2008 by Jen  Send to a Friend

all photos: Lexie Moreland

I’d been hypothesizing this for a while now, but the show on Tuesday night made it official.
The degree by which I will enjoy a show is directly proportional to the level of beard growth in
a) the band
and
b) the crowd.

It probably has something to do with my backwoods upbringing out in hazelnut country, but when I see that the lumberjacks have turned out for a band, I’m almost guaranteed to like it. Go figure. Such was surely the case with the ruggedly delicate Fleet Foxes opening for the decidedly weird and ultimately amazing Blitzen Trapper on the Cat’s backstage. My interview with Blitzen’s guitarist/singer Marty on Monday had me pretty psyched for an allegedly “mind-blowing” performance and he was right as rain.

I will preface my assessment of Fleet Foxes with just one thought. If you, dear concertgoer, are ever possessed by the urge to wear an oversized plastic Viking helmet, please don’t stand front and center so that your elaborate inside joke obscures the view of basically everyone in the band. I am by no means a rock snob when it comes to stupid audience members, but this was genuinely obnoxious. Obnoxious Viking, if you’re reading this, I am on to you. Just say no next time.

Anyway. It’s hard to really break down exactly how amazing Fleet Foxes were. Parts of their performance were just downright astonishing. Generating enough buzz with their stupendous “Sun Giant” EP, these other-Washingtonians apparently lost their voices at SXSW, bellowing out their careful harmonies. This is easy to imagine, as the vocals were almost consuming during songs like “Mykonos” or “English House.” Robin Pecknold’s limber voice was the highlighted instrument for sure, especially during the stellar “Oliver James.” That song was one of the first moments in my recent memory where all of the bar chatter and nonsense came to a shuddering halt and everyone just listened. To think, the guy was apparently sick. “You should hear him when he’s well,” one of his bandmates pointed out. No doubt. All corniness aside, this band was transcendent and I had goosebumps for about fifteen solid minutes. I was prepared to proposition at least two of them for marriage by the end of their set. Their full-length debut should be out sometime in early June and should absolutely not be missed.

After Fleet Foxes, I heard a lot of people offer disdain for Blitzen Trapper, as if there was no way they could match the former’s performance. Admittedly, that would be a daunting task. But Blitzen is such a radically different band, so there’s no way they could compare. Eric Earley’s songwriting is an exercise in versatility. Their set almost seemed to hover among different genres, transitioning from the noisier, raucous songs to the more foot-stomping jams with ease.

Sometimes it’s a little jarring when a band’s best-known song is completely unlike the rest of their catalogue (I’m looking at you, Yeasayer), but Blitzen Trapper’s title track “Wild Mountain Nation” is more like evidence that these guys are going to be impossible to pin down.
In my interview with Marty, he mentioned that they had been listening to a lot of African and dub music lately and that some of that could be heard in their new album. Some of the new songs they played on Tuesday (the titles of which I have absolutely no clue) actually had those themes resonating through, but in this complex, intriguing manner.

Throw in some positively heartwarming covers like “The Last Thing on My Mind” and what I believe was “Cocaine Blues,” and you’ve got a set that is no doubt complicated and a little confusing, but a welcome compliment to their darling opener.

I thought I had Blitzen Trapper all figured out when I first heard “Wild Mountain Nation” last summer, but now I’m convinced that I am nowhere near that anymore. Especially now that I’ve replaced my idyllic image of Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton singing “Last Thing on My Mind” with that of Eric and Marty. It’s almost embarrassing to disclose how much I enjoyed that cover.

Did I mention that like 8 out of the 11 dudes who performed had level-10 beard growth? They all looked like Rip Van Winkle. No wonder it was such a fantastic show.

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