The Walkmen slayed at Avalon: where the hell were you?
By VICKI G. SIOLOS | June 30, 2006
HAMILTON LEITHAUSER: A mixture of Dylan and Tom Waits. |
Avalon can be a tricky place to perform, and not just because of the hordes of Red Sox fans congealing across the street. For local and touring bands alike, playing the thousand-plus capacity club is a sign you’ve arrived. The downside: it’s always more noticeable when the headliner performs to a half-empty room. Such was the case last night with New York City’s the Walkmen, though the low turnout wasn’t for lack of crafty songwriting and stage presence. Watching frontman Hamilton Leithauser clench his right hand around the mic and sing his big heart out, you couldn’t help but wonder how it is that, six years on and counting, this band is still consistently overlooked. Leithauser took the stage with his four bandmates while the house lights still blazed, their modest entrance completely unnoticed for a few choice moments until the audience, catching on late, roared with applause. Launching right into “All Hands and the Cook,” Hamilton broke out his harshest Dylan-esque croon atop a fluttering delay of chiming guitars and a locomotive bass guitar. The band delivered the best of their latest record, A Hundred Miles Off, and though the most anticipated song in the set -- “Lost In Boston,” natch -- turned out to be less of an anthemic moment than you’d think, “Don’t Get Me Down” sounded perfect, with belted vocals that would’ve made Tina Turner proud.
It’s hard to say what keeps the Walkmen from earning a wider scope of attention. As a performer, Hamilton Leithauser is a mixture of Dylan and Tom Waits, possessed by his own compositions, but playing off them with a dose of Josh Homme-ish cool. Walkmen songs, both live and on record, want to be gigantic, which is probably why they used to draw comparisons to U2. They’ve continued to progress with each record, which is more than can be said for their openers, Radio 4 -- a band that began with a respectable update of danceable post-punk but has since Xeroxed its songs for each new album, and at Avalon might as well have been a Rapture cover band. The Walkmen provide a new look each time out, offering different takes on a saloon-swaggering, metropolitan theme. Misunderstood? Maybe, but that’s always been the purest fuel for a band on the run.
Related:
The list is life, The Walkmen, Zombie sheep?, More
- The list is life
There’s a line in John Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy,” favored by free spirits and Type-B thinkers: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
- The Walkmen
Granted the best song here is a big dig on the city of Boston, and Hamilton Leithauser’s reedy voice has gone from Dylanesque to Dylan forgery, and there’s no one massive track to rally behind.
- Zombie sheep?
After a top-notch first two days, the Fifth Independent Film Festival of Boston weathers some ups and downs through the remainder of its schedule.
- Porn again
The sound of loud, breathy faux orgasms ricocheted upstairs at the Coolidge Corner Theatre.
- White hunters, black hearts
There are hundreds of faces in the “Trophy Room” of 419Eater.com , and most of them are black.
- Blowed up good
We hope Jim Capaldi, director of the state Department of Transportation, doesn’t faint when he reads the following sentence.
- Set ’em up, knock ’em back
History’s greatest drinkers, music’s greatest drinking songs, and a wobbly time line of booze in Boston.
- When animals attack
If it's South Carolina, it's not really the Red Sox.
- Browsing ahead
All that online talk (nine billion Google hits and counting) notwithstanding, “Web 3.0” won’t be happening any time soon.
- Batter up
Peter Gammons has something of a perfect life.
- Less
Topics:
Live Reviews
, Entertainment, Music, Music Reviews, More
, Entertainment, Music, Music Reviews, Baseball, Sports, Tom Waits, U2, AL East Division, American League (Baseball), Boston Red Sox, Less