(Editor’s Note: We’ve got some stuff to disclose on this one, so we want to dispense with it early. First, the thing that we were most excited about this evening was Megafaun. We love their upcoming record (out July 21) and, quite possibly, (shockingly), might have undersold its quality in the review. The more you listen to this thing, the more you hear. Buy it as soon as you can. So, we were stoked to see Megafaun, principally. We were also eager to see how Bowerbirds translated live and were pleasantly surprised by local folks Craig Ramsey and the Nice People, but the main course for us was Megafaun. As such, the review is slightly tilted towards them; you’re going to go see Megafaun and Bowerbirds if they’re within a hundred miles of your house; both bands are superior, we just hit our personal faves a touch more here. Secondly, the folks in Megafaun and Bowerbirds are good people. We had the chance to shoot the breeze and down a few brews with them and they’re all engaging and personable. That, however, won’t color our review. We hope to have Brad, Phil and Joe over for Thanksgiving dinner, but our fondness for their personalities won’t affect our objectivity. Promise. With that out of the way, on with the review.)
Clevelanders Craig Ramsey and the Nice People opened the evening with a solid set of nicely straightforward, slightly poppy, highly catchy folkishness. There were a ton of folks on stage (this is going to make me sound old, but they all looked to be about 14), laying down waves of smooth, harmony laden tunes. They’re a band that prompts frenetic toe-tapping, and, for the slightly more adventurous, more expressive motions of the body. (Side note which points to issue #2 in the editor’s note: Megafaun where really engaged with the Craig Ramsey and the Nice People set, tuning in and giving the local kids some love. They’re dudes that love music and that translates to them being uber-supportive of the scene. Which is nice to see.) There are some tracks on the band’s myspace page that are well worth checking out, notably “If You Won’t Try,” which really stood out live. The frontman (Craig Ramsey, we presume) indicated that many of the folks on stage would be heading back to college soon; we hope that any hiatus isn’t permanent in nature.
When Megafaun took the stage, we had almost unreasonably high expectations: we’ve been hooked on the various videos floating around the internet of the band driving through wildly hypnotic, crowd involving sets, we’d chatted with the band beforehand about their wide range of influences and touchstones (everything from Medeski, Martin and Wood to Phish to Arnold Dreyblat to, well, you get the idea) and we caught a glimpse of the band’s attention to detail in soundcheck and willingness to hone the delivery of the songs. In short, everything that we’d seen beforehand and all of the band’s actions leading up to the show made us believe that they’d be a crack live act. And their recorded material is amazing. And they have noted and sought-after improvisational skills. You get the idea. Dudes did not disappoint. From the moment they plugged in, they were both engaging and totally locked in. Their distinct mixture of charisma, stage presence, chops and quality material translates into an absolutely bitching live act.
The set was packed with stuff to hang your hat on. The band’s touring on new material, so most of the audience wasn’t hip to the tunes; it speaks to the integrity of the songs (and their delivery) that folks were keeping up. The crowd ate up “Gather, Form and Fly,” with its unpredictable starts and stops; it was cool to see folks wrapping their brains around the mammoth pauses in the song. The end was nifty as well, in that for a beat too long, folks were waiting for one more drop of the tune. The show was packed with bits like this, where the audience was making connections to the material as it was being played. Part of this is the gravity of the trio; it was a quiet and focused room when they were playing. The witty banter that the band lobbed at the crowd also heightened that connection. (Sometimes musicians aren’t clever and you’re not really interested in hearing them talk; here, Megafaun was eliciting chuckles from the crowd all night.)
The evening can, to a degree, be encapsulated in the last two songs that Megafaun played; “Guns” opens with gorgeous three-part harmonies (one of the clear highlights of the evening; when all three of these cats are singing together, it is time to pay serious attention) that eventually fade into absolute sonic anarchy. The band took things pretty far out on “Columns” as well, but in the closing moments of “Guns” they pointed the spaceship at the stars and gave it the gas. Brad Cook was running a bunch of sounds through a laptop, pulling distorted voices and ominous hums out of every speaker while Phil Cook made his acoustic scream. The most fascinating stuff was happening with drummer Joe Westerlund who was doing things to a gong that were both mildly obscene and startlingly unique. (The gong work here is impossible for me to describe adequately, as I don’t have an MFA, but dude was scrapping a stick across it and making it sound like a otherworldly howl. It’s worth the price of admission to see this bit.) The final minutes of the tune were about as experimental as things are going to get at the Beachland anytime soon. Following that explosion of modernity, Megafaun stepped in front of their mikes and played a rousing version of “His Robe” that wouldn’t have been out of place in a church tent revival. This ability to execute two wildly disparate idioms with such precision and force is what makes Megafaun both interesting and entertaining. Lots of bands can do the wild freak out; lots of bands can do the churchy folk music. Not many can do either as well as Megafaun and damn near none of them can do both.
We’ve got audio of the “His Robe” closer, but this really only grabs one side of the Janus-like Megafaun. Swallow something like “Drains” from Bury the Square or “Reflections of the Past” on the upcoming record to get the side you’re not going to introduce to your mother. You do, however, get the band’s ability to get the crowd absolutely humming, a snippet of their razor sharp wit and a big taste of their talent. Dudes are kind of funning at some points, but if you don’t get goosepimples when they lay the harmonies on thick, we’ve got a problem.
“His Robe” – Megafaun – Live, Beachland Ballroom July 15
Full disclosure: I was a little sapped after Megafaun. And. Cleveland’s own Suede Brothers were playing in the ballroom and we slipped over to get a few licks of rust-belt guitar shredding between the sets. Bowerbirds was a near perfect remedy for my slight dehydration and impending weariness. Simply put, Bowerbirds sing beautiful songs. Phil Moore is a talented song writer, Beth Tacular plays a wicked accordion and the both sing with a tenderness that’s refreshing. Songs like “In Our Talons,” which is killer on record were a notch better live. (That “dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-de-de” bit in that tune sounded downright nefarious last night, like lock the windows and hope for the best nefarious.) We’ve not given you a full critical look at their recently released Upper Air, but we can assure you that it’s good. The power of “Northern Lights” live, which had the room swaying softly attests to that if nothing else. Bowerbirds capped off the evening nicely with their sweet sounds.
Overall, this is a can’t miss show the rest of the way. Megafaun take no prisoners and Bowerbirds hit you with songs that you’ll be humming for weeks. After the show, Brad Cook told us that Megafaun try to gauge the crowd and tailor the set to them, so they can get the synergy that they’re looking for. Joe Westerlund talked about wanting to take the revelations he gets from more academic experimental music to a less specific audience. Take those two things together and you’ve got the show in a nutshell. Smart folks doing smart things in smart ways. All of this plays into the Bowerbirds’ hands as, assuming things generally go the way they did in Cleveland, the crowd’s dialed into the right interplanetary frequency when they take the stage. Lastly, we snagged the Megafaun setlist (cause that’s how we roll); if you take Cook’s description of the tailoring of the set to the needs and vibes of the crowd, I think, as a group of concertgoers, we were sending out a pretty bitching message. Good times all around.
