Tag Archives: Dawes

cat_preview

A Dynamic Double Bill

October 27th, 2011

Blitzen Trapper/Dawes – Webster Hall – October 26, 2011


It seems like an easy enough formula: Step 1: Write great songs. Step 2: Play ’em live all over the country. Step 3: Success. Of course, it’s that first part that’s the trick. But last night two bands showed how it’s done in front of a sold-out Webster Hall. The first part of the double bill was Blitzen Trapper, which, at times, seemed to have built an entire irresistible sound solely out of musical discoveries buried in the Band’s “Up on Cripple Creek.” Working through material off their new album, American Goldwing, the band was a study in guitars and harmonies and well-placed embellishments, like harmonicas and Moog synth. Like on the album, they opened with the crunchy rock of “Might Find It Cheap,” exclaiming “…but you’ll never find it for free!” Frontman Eric Earley has one of those voices that you hear on a CD and just can’t wait to match the face to the voice.

Two or three guitars—acoustic and electric—mixed with keys, drums and bass, and each sound was like a single string, strummed together to make a pitch-perfect chord. Blitzen Tapper’s songs were superlatively realized and set a Gothic landscape, with tunes like “Astronaut” and standout “Black River Killer” off Furr. The title track brought out a unique mix of synth, slide guitar and harmonica, making otherworldly music out of everyday objects. The group made plenty of room for guitar solos and short jams, always highlighting the powerful melodies and songwriting prowess. Closing with “Fletcher,” the tale of a guy who perhaps had too much to drink to take the wheel, the set was musical storytelling and roots rock at its absolute finest.

Watching Dawes play New York City over the past couple of years is like tracking data points on a plot that’s continually progressing upward. The question is how high will it go and when will they get there? Taylor Goldsmith and Co. were all smiles as usual, working most of the material off their acclaimed Nothing Is Wrong album. Goldsmith has that “he looks like someone I know” kind of appearance and an “I know a guy like that” stage presence—the type that can’t stand still, with permanently tousled hair and might have a guitar strap with his name on it. But not many of us know a guy who writes love songs like Goldsmith does, with the conversational lyrics and just-right melodies.

Although there was plenty of energy from the band, the strength seemed to come from the quiet moments, like on “Million Dollar Bill,” which was good enough to melt the hearts of the ladies in the crowd and keep their dates’ heads bopping. The set built momentum as it went, peaking with a big guitar jam in “Peace in the Valley” that Goldsmith treated like calisthenics across the stage and then when drummer Griffin Goldsmith sang a great cover version of “Kodachrome” before turning the lights on the crowd for the joyfully inevitable “When My Time Comes.” —A. Stein

Photos courtesy of JC McIlwaine | www.jcmcilwaine.com

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in House List, Photos and Review No Comments »

cat_reviews

An Ass-Kicking Musical Revue

March 7th, 2011

Middle Brother/Dawes/Deer Tick – The Bowery Ballroom – March 6, 2011

middle_brother

Is March still part of the winter or is it spring? Should we be happy that it’s getting warmer or depressed because it was raining all day? Is Sunday night the end of the weekend or the beginning of the next week? Is Middle Brother a side project, a supergroup or just another band? These were some of the questions hanging in the air at The Bowery Ballroom on a rainy Sunday night in March. The answer to all of them is, of course, “somewhere in between,” which gives the band’s moniker some extra meaning.

Middle Brother, being bits of Dawes, Deer Tick and Delta Spirit, was only part of the story, though. Usually projects like these are meant to get the musicians away from their normal bands for some extracurricular activity. But the gig on Sunday was more of an extra kind of thing with the entirety of Dawes and Deer Tick playing their own full-strength sets as well. These weren’t opening slots, but part of an overall-show arc, with both bands playing in as-good-as-I’ve-seen-’em form. Despite having their bags stolen the night before, Dawes was as alive as ever with their superb polished-for-radio sound. Frontman Taylor Goldsmith extolled the beauty of support and collaboration with fellow musicians, setting the tone for the evening. He then brought out Johnny Corndawg for a mini-set of country-flavored fun. The closing number, “When My Time Comes,” had Corndawg and the Middle Brother cohorts singing along in unified awesomeness.

With their double blasts of guitar and a bottle of Maker’s Mark to pass around onstage, Deer Tick was a raging contrast of raw bar-band rock and roll. Their set included more guest turns and a massive jam with three guitars and eight total musicians as well as a fantastic five-part harmony on “Dirty Dishes.” By the time the quote-unquote headliner took the stage, the crowd had already gotten their money’s worth, but there was plenty more to come. In rock and roll mathematics, the sum of Goldsmith, Deer Tick’s John McCauley and Delta Sprit’s Matt Vasquez is roughly the average of proto-supergroups Crosby, Stills and Nash and Blind Faith: lush harmonies, touching, self-aware songwriting and plenty of build-to-climax raging rock. Rotating in guests from the rest of the night, they hit most of their self-titled debut in fine fashion. There was plenty of joking and back-slapping and free-for-all fun onstage and hooting, hollering and heckling in the crowd. As the clock approached midnight, the band handed out masks with ugly pictures of themselves for those in the audience to hold up—for no reason at all. Was it the weekend or the start of the week? Somewhere in between. —A. Stein

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in House List, Reviews No Comments »

cat_preview

Five Questions with … John McCauley

March 2nd, 2011


A fantastic musical revue is coming our way this weekend. Middle Brother, comprised of the frontmen of three talented bands—John McCauley (Deer Tick), Matt Vasquez (Delta Spirit) and Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes)—plays Music Hall of Williamsburg on Saturday and The Bowery Ballroom on Sunday. Each night will packed with great music, featuring sets by Middle Brother (above, doing “Me Me Me”), Deer Tick and Dawes. It’s sure to be a blast, but be aware that Saturday’s show is already sold out and Sunday’s show could, too. So act fast! In the meantime, McCauley was kind enough to answer Five Questions for The House List.

What’s the last band you paid to see live?
Oh man, I haven’t paid for a show in a long time…. Maybe Joe Fletcher and the Wrong Reasons; one of my favorite bands. They’re out of Providence.

What’s the toughest part of playing New York City?
Not being able to smoke indoors.

Where do you like to hang out in NYC? And do you ever feel like you could live here?
I love Red Hook. I did live in New York for a bit, but it wasn’t for me.

What music or song always makes you dance?
“Jump Jive an’ Wail” by the Brian Setzer Orchestra.

Your after-party is at a bar with a great jukebox, and The House List gives you a buck. Which three songs are you playing?
AC/DC’s “T.N.T.,” the Beatles’ “Dig a Pony” and the Replacements’ “I Won’t.” —R. Zizmor

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Five Questions, House List, Preview, Video No Comments »

cat_reviews

Just Try to Say No

November 8th, 2010

Dawes – Webster Hall – November 5, 2010

dawes_img01_hires
Certain things are hard to resist. Someone offers free tickets to the game, a cold beer or Peanut M&M’s, and how can you say no? Dawes, the up-and-comers from L.A., are the same way: You listen to their music with its perfect balance of sing-along lyrics and air-guitar-able Laurel Canyon rock and how can you resist? So it should come as no surprise that this same band had the Webster Hall crowd eating it up on Friday night.

They’re on one of those wouldn’t-believe-it-if-I-wasn’t-seeing-it upswings right now, hopping from obscurity with a bad haircut to a crowded NYC club in the time it takes to finish that beer someone just handed you, making everything frontman Taylor Goldsmith, said—like “been a really good year for us” or “all we’re going to do is make sure you have fun”—seem like a major understatement. Goldsmith and Co. (including brother Griffin on the drums) led the way through a concise hour-plus of music present and future, keeping the audience buoyant with the songs they know and love while preparing them for new ones like “My Way Back Home,” “Fire Away” and the encore, “A Little Bit of Everything,” recently recorded for their second album.

Feeding off the pretzel-knot bass of Wylie Gelber, every song flowed with positive energy to match Taylor Goldsmith’s manic twinkle in his eye and sidestepping back and forth across the stage. Perhaps not every song had a chorus imbued with oohs or ohs, but Dawes made it tough to care either way when the songs were sung so earnestly and passionately. The set seemed a perfect journey toward one moment, the set-closing “When My Time Comes.” Once the band hit the chorus and the house lights illuminated a roomful of smiling faces ready to belt out the words, the audience did not disappoint. How could they resist? —A. Stein

Tags: , ,
Posted in House List, Reviews No Comments »

cat_preview

If You Like Good Music, See Dawes on Friday

November 3rd, 2010

After a jam session in Laurel Canyon with the likes of Chris Robinson, Connor Oberst and Benmont Tench (Tom Petty’s keyboardist), the guys in Dawes—charismatic frontman-guitarist Taylor Goldsmith, drummer Griffin Goldsmith, bassist Wylie Gelber and keyboardist Alex Casnoff—got the general idea of how they wanted their debut album, North Hills, to sound. That terrific disc came out last year, and the band, while working on their next album, has been touring ever since. When they play live, the quartet expertly shifts from a quiet song to a loud one, and sometimes you have to do a double take just to make sure only four people are making all that noise onstage. Plus, the well-written songs stay with you. (Just try to get “When My Time Comes,” above, out of your head.) For an L.A. band, they’ve played New York City a lot. And each time they come through, Dawes sound better than the previous show, which works out great since they play Webster Hall on Friday.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in House List, Preview, Video No Comments »

cat_preview

Three Chances to Spend the Night with Josh Ritter

May 18th, 2010


Growing up in Idaho, Josh Ritter heard the Bob Dylan/Johnny Cash version of “Girl from the North Country” on his parents’ copy of Nashville Skyline and knew he wanted to become a songwriter. Some dreams do come true, because years later, Ritter was named one of the 100 Greatest Living Songwriters by Paste magazine. The folk-leaning singer-songwriter has earned favorable comparisons to Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen and Gillian Welch (or as Mary-Louise Parker says, he “is usually compared to the legends, the ones you have been listening to since you were 15, the ones you love most”), and he’s put out a considerable amount of material on EPs and full-length albums. And, backed by the Royal City Band, Ritter (above, playing “The Curse” for Studio 360) is currently touring in support of his most recent disc, So Runs the World Away, which brings him to Town Hall tomorrow and Thursday and to Music Hall of Williamsburg (with Dawes opening!) on Saturday.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in House List, Preview, Video 1 Comment »

MG and V: Supergroup, SXSW Style

March 18th, 2010

mgv-1-lores
Sandwiched between a set by Dawes and one by Delta Spirit, three frontmen—John McCauley (Deer Tick), Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes) and Matt Vasquez (Delta Spirit)—plus Dawes drummer Griffin Goldsmith and Delta Spirit keyboardist Kelly Winrich played live for the very first time under the name MG and V. The vocalists wrote a bunch of material earlier in the year while holed up in Nashville, and they debuted four songs here at the IFC Crossroads House. McCauley, who played bass, sang “Daydreaming” with its fantastic opening line, “Listening to the neighbors having sex.” Vasquez took the next tune. No one said the name of the upbeat song, but it might’ve been called “Some Day.” Taylor sang lead next on “Thanks for Nothing.” And then all three singers traded verses on “Million Dollar Bill.” Good shit. Delta Spirit up next. Stream it here! —R. Zizmor

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in House List No Comments »

The Bowery Presents Heads to Austin, Tejas

March 16th, 2010

ifccrossroadshouse_flyer

We’re bringing music to the Crossroads House in conjunction with the IFC, above, plus we’ve got our own showcase on Thursday night at Emo’s, below. Don’t be a stranger. Come check us out!

1

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in House List No Comments »

cat_preview

Don’t Miss Dawes the Next Time They’re in Town

February 22nd, 2010

Dawes – The Bowery Ballroom – February 19, 2010

Dawes - The Bowery Ballroom - February 19, 2010
The L.A.-based quartet Dawes played a handful of NYC shows last year, all of them as openers. But on Friday night, serving as headliners, they sold out the venerable Bowery Ballroom. Much has been made of their musical roots and the precociousness of their debut album, North Hills—most often mentioning Americana and alt-country, or comparing their sound to that which has come out of the legendary rock and roll neighborhood Laurel Canyon, comparing their evocative lyrics to those of the Band and comparing their harmonies to those of Crosby, Stills and Nash. Instead, though, let’s just go with this: If Dawes were a van, there’d be a DON’T COME A KNOCKIN’ sticker on the back bumper ’cause this band rocks.

The group is led by its 24-year-old frontman, Taylor Goldsmith, who has serious pipes, dexterous guitar skills and exuberance and stage presence to spare. (Plus, he resembles a beardless Charlie Day.) And although he sings and rips it on guitar, the rest of the band—Wylie Gelber on bass, Griffin Goldmsith (Taylor’s 19-year-old brother) on drums and Alex Casnoff on keys—is just as talented. The show began with a mellow one-two punch of “When You Call My Name” and “Give Me Time” before Taylor happily addressed the crowd: “Last February, we were the first of three bands to play here. And look at us now!”

But something special about this band is how easily they move from a slow song, like the harmonious new tune “So Well” to an upbeat one, like “My Girl to Me,” which really comes to rocking life onstage. Of course, the high point of the night was probably the band’s set closer, the anthem “When My Time Comes,” which inspired the most rousing, fist-pumping sing-along The Bowery Ballroom has seen in quite some time. That moment would have been a fitting end to the show. But this was Friday night in New York City, and the headlining Dawes didn’t disappoint with their two-song encore—a pitch-perfect take on Warren Zevon’s resplendent “Lawyers, Guns and Money” and a dreamy, swirling, jammed-out “Peace in the Valley.” It made for one hell of a Friday night. —R. Zizmor

Photos courtesy of Gregg Greenwood | www.gregggreenwood.com

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in House List, Photos and Review No Comments »

cat_preview

Dawes: A View

February 18th, 2010


Originally, this was intended to be a preview for Dawes, the young L.A.-based band with a terrific debut album, North Hills (complete with tightly written songs, quality harmonies and some good old-fashioned guitar love), and even better live show, headlining The Bowery Ballroom tonight for the very first time—with Corey Chisel & the Wandering Sons and Jason Boesel. But it seems unfair to preview a show that’s already sold out. And a review of tonight’s show is, quite frankly, a bit premature since it hasn’t happened yet. So, instead of a preview or a review, think of this as just a view: Check out Dawes, above, playing the sure-to-get-stuck-in-your-head “When My Time Comes” and, below, covering the Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends.” And then you’ll know that the next time Dawes comes to town you shouldn’t be so slow in deciding to get a ticket because, seriously, these guys kick ass.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in House List, Preview, Video No Comments »

Deer Tick Ends Tour at The Bowery Ballroom

July 27th, 2009

Deer Tick – The Bowery Ballroom – July 24, 2009

Deer Tick

Deer Tick

Deer Tick had been on the road steadily since early June—including more than 20 dates with Dawes—before closing their tour in rowdy style at a sold-out Bowery Ballroom on Friday night. Playing tracks from their debut album, War Elephant, and their follow-up disc, Born on Flag Day, released about a month ago, Deer Tick began the show with a brief drums interlude and then firmly took hold of the audience with two hours of gritty, sweaty rock and roll.

Drummer Dennis Ryan, whose tour beard compared favorably to the Geico Caveman’s, his bassist brother, Chris, and guitarist Andy Tobiassen are talented musicians, but Deer Tick’s heart and soul is clearly John McCauley’s raspy, evocative voice. The frontman was chatty and affable throughout. (And possibly drunk. Although he’s not a haphazard drinker: He kept his beers cool in a koozie all night.) Before going into “Baltimore Blues No. 1,” McCauley said, “I wrote these fucking songs in my bedroom when I was 17 or 18 years old. And there were never this many people there. But if there were, we would’ve had a great time.” Those in the audience happily agreed as they stomped, clapped and sang along to songs like “These Old Shoes” and “Little White Lies,” plus a terrific cover of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “Breakdown.”

As the show—and tour—wound down, members of both opening bands, Dawes and These United States, who had been singing along from the side of the stage, joined Deer Tick onstage. The mood was loud and rambunctious, like rolling thunder, as they drank, hugged, danced and took turns trading solos on a ripping version of “La Bamba.” Many young bands’ live performances sound remarkably similar to their recorded work, but Deer Tick’s live show breathed new life into their already-heady stuff, turning earnest music into something dirtier (in a good way). Like the recorded takes were just the beginning, a blueprint to build on. Hopefully they will. They’re off to an awfully good start. —R. Zizmor

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in House List No Comments »

My Five: Jay Belin

June 19th, 2009
1. Passion Pit, Manners 2. Gentleman Jesse and His Band, Gentleman Jesse and His Band 3. The Gaslight Anthem, The ’59 Sound 4. Crocodiles, “Summer of Hate” 5. Dawes, North Hills

(Left to right) 1. Passion Pit 2. Dawes 3. Gentleman Jesse and His Band 4. Crocodiles 5. The Gaslight Anthem

Jay Belin is the talent buyer at Mercury Lounge. Lots of music comes his way, but these are the five CDs he’s listening to the most right now. Read below to see why.

Passion Pit, Manners
Who said being young, dumb and full of cum couldn’t get you anywhere? Well, two of three anyway. The hype machine is in full gear and why not—this record rules hard. I heart these guys and that was before hearing this. Manners only makes it easier. (Passion Pit plays two sold-out shows at The Bowery Ballroom this weekend.)

Dawes, North Hills
My love of this record has confused more than one of my friends, but there is something undeniable about the sincerity and musical ability of these youngbloods from the great state of California. It may not land in my wheelhouse, but these days it’s all I want to hear.

Gentlemen Jesse and His Band, Gentlemen Jesse and His Band
Things can go two ways when you hear a band for the first time at a show. This one obviously fell into the positive end of the spectrum. It’s been said before, but they fill the void left in my soul by the Exploding Hearts tragedy.

Crocodiles, “Summer of Hate”
Falling for a band after hearing one song is as dumb as selling the farm after the first date, but sometimes, if you’re lucky, it all works out in the end. The standout “I Wanna Kill” was built for skinny ties and confused Goths on dance floors across the country. (Crocodiles are playing Mercury Lounge tomorrow night.)

The Gaslight Anthem, The ’59 Sound
If you aren’t obsessed with this record, I’m de-friending you. Sorry for the drama, but seriously, rent a convertible, hit the highway and watch your troubles disappear in the rearview mirror. They’re the best thing to come out of Jersey since the Bouncing Souls (yeah, I went there).

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in House List No Comments »

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Twitter Feed

  • The bowery presents merch