I've gone to a couple of concerts since the last time I posted, a couple that I really feel need to be discussed and reviewed. To start off, let's take a quick look back to the concerts that were hit up this wonderful summer:
Foster The People (Kimbra opened!!)
Old Crow Medicine Show and The Lumineers (opener: The Milk Carton Kids)
The Avett Brothers
soon to come: Alabama Shakes
So let's start with the concert that was not folk, but was an alternative rock concert. At the time I wasn't a huge lover of Foster the People, but my opinion quickly changed. I sort of happened into this concert, it wasn't something that I had planned on going to so I hadn't really done any research on their sound other than what I had heard on the radio. I was really pleasantly surprised by their show! I realized I knew more than the one "Pumped Up Kicks" and really enjoyed myself.
I attended OCMS with the express purpose to watch their opening act, The Lumineers. I love me some Bluegrass OCMS, but I had really been into The Lumineers all summer and they were finally coming to Boston!! To open for The Lumineers we were introduced to The Milk Carton Kids. A quirky pair of guys from LA that played two acoustic guitars who had killer dead pan personalities. I love dry humor and just complete dead pan humor, so their banter with the crowd was really spot on for me. The crowd really loved them, too, at the House of Blues. It was a perfect setting for them, not too huge, but big enough and still small enough to stay intimate. Their ability to harmonize was something that I couldn't, and still can't, get over. You couldn't hear who's voice was who's, it was really perfect. I became an instant fan and immediately went home to download some tunes. At their website you can download their albums for free, or you can get them on iTunes, I really suggest giving them a listen. As for The Lumineers, they were PERFECT. I couldn't get over how great they were live, and I vowed that the next time they came around I would absolutely go see them again. "Ho Hey" and "Big Parade" were pulled off flawlessly with crowd involvement and also band involvement. It was obvious that this Denver based band had fans in Boston!
An evening with The Avett Brothers, I'm not even sure that I can wrap my head around that show even a week and a half later. The first time I had listened to them was when "If it's the Beaches" had come out around late 2008. Then, thank you iTunes and NPR All Songs Considered, I heard them on a podcast live from the Newport Folk Festival from 2009 and was really intrigued by their singing voices, or yelling/harmonizing that they were able to accomplish live. I've been a long time fan of The Avett Brothers and have been really amazed at how far they've come. It's a pretty incredible time for the banjo right now, so this folk revival is really working in their favor. The best part is that they aren't even really that folky, they're more of a rock group. The most folk-like aspect to them, in my opinion, is their ability to tell a story in every single song that they create and play. Scott and Seth Avett have really mastered the ability to relate to people, mostly because everytime one hears a song, they can immediately understand where that song is coming from. Whether it be a really simple song like "January Wedding," where Seth sweetly sings about he love of his life, or "Distraction #74," where Seth and Scott harmonously weave their voices in and out of each other's while still keeping the song steeped in the more rock/aggressive voices that they are known for at their shows. I'm pretty sure, if memory serves me, they started the set with "Paranoia in B Major" and continued to include "When I drink" "Salina" "Shame" "Down with the Shine" "Will You Return" "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promises," just to name a few. Obviously this was a show for their most recent album that had just been release earlier this month entitled "The Once and Future Carpenter." For two and a half hours straight I was immersed in the Brothers Avett and wished that it could have been for longer. No opener was needed, at 7:45pm they came onto the stage to raucous applause and left at 10:30pm to chants for more. I've never been to a concert like that, it was incredible.