Thursday night I enjoyed the ultimate live show trifecta: three great bands in a rockin’ city for under $15. Brown Bird, Death Vessel and The Low Anthem kept the crowd riveted from start to finish in Providence’s Avon Cinema.
Brown Bird never ceases to give me chills. Usually, I see them perform as a three piece, but on this night they were five members, adding Maine-based Jerusha and Jeremy Robinson to the lineup. Many tracks from the brand new album The Devil Dancing made their way into the set. Sprinkled with their signature moody folk and bluegrass sound, tempo changes and thoughtful lyrics, the freshest songs also featured more polyrhythmic vocal lines than some of the older ones. David, the band’s primary vocalist, predominately interacted with Morganeve (pictured below far right) and Jerusha (pictured below far left) in complex and interesting melodies and harmonies. I also felt like they were flat out singing louder than normal. It was truly exciting.
Brown Bird in their quintet entirety
Brown Bird is experimental but reliable, and so is David’s beat up floor tom he plays with a pedal while singing and playing guitar. Actually, he uses both feet to create percussion for the band, but it’s always been the floor tom that interests me most: I keep forgetting to ask if that’s an actual cocktail pedal he uses to hit the drum’s underside, or if it’s a regular one that he’s somehow altered. Given the band’s artistic nature, I suspect the latter.
Death Vessel
Next up on the bill was Death Vessel. Death Vessel is always singer-songwriter Joel Thibodeau, but sometimes Death Vessel is a band. This time Joel played solo to a packed house. While I have to say that I prefer the full band version, Death Vessel solo is still capable of playing an intimate and captivating set. I recognized many of the songs as ones I’d listened to in the car on the way to the show.
At first glance Joel is a slight man (thin and delicately built) but not a weak one. It’s his strong, calm facial features however that lend him a certain air of power and masculinity. He looks like he knows what you’re thinking, but that you couldn’t possibly get inside his head. When he opens his mouth to sing, his voice will catch you entirely off guard, no matter what you already think about him: he is, effortlessly, a soprano. Joel’s voice is one of the most unique I’ve ever heard. All in all I found Death Vessel very enjoyable, including his brief and humorous comments between songs. However, I have to say that I look forward to seeing him again with the full band: rather than taking away from Joel, the other musicians really just punctuate the incredible songwriting.
The Low Anthem, high energy
Last but in no way least was The Low Anthem. This was the band that most of the audience had come to see and the only one I’d never seen live. They played a long, full set and much like Brown Bird, their stage was littered with interesting and diverse instruments. I didn’t know until halfway through the set that the high-pitched, metallic (and yet bowed) sound was coming from a set of Tibetan singing bowls. Conceptually fantastic, though in practice they overwhelmed my sensitive ears a little bit.
The band played an array of songs, fluctuating between raucous bluesy numbers and laid back, gentle tunes. My favorite continues to be This God Damn House, which happens to utilize two cell phones as instruments. The Low Anthem is obviously passionate about what they do, and this zeal comes across clearly on every note. Every note, and every ringing bit of static coming out of those cell phones.
