It’s official: The National are a great band.
The Cincinnati group’s newly released LP, High Violet, is their third stellar album in a row, completing the astonishing trilogy they began with 2005’s Alligator and 2007’s Boxer. Like those records, High Violet finds the band in peak form, maintaining a calculated mastery of their material that begins when the needle drops and doesn’t let up until the final track fades away. Continue reading…
“The Casbah has always been a special place for us,” Frightened Rabbit singer Scott Hutchison informed the enthusiastic, sold-out crowd.
It was his band’s third appearance at the quintessential San Diego venue — which he claimed had given them their first headlining gig — and you could tell that his professed love was genuine. The show was the second to last stop on Frightened Rabbit’s US tour, but the smiles on their faces made it clear that it was far from just another gig. Continue reading…
Though you might find the new Caribou album, Swim, tucked in the indie-electronic aisle, frontman Daniel Snaith samples a much wider buffet of genres in a live setting. As you’d expect, you’ll hear him match up against electronic contemporaries like Vitalic, Animal Collective, and even Paul Van Dyk, but a good portion of the show also has the wider influences featured on earlier albums. His previous album, Andorra, had vintage tributes to The Mamas and The Papas (if backed by the relentless drums of, say, Dave Grohl) as well as indie-style jams that evoke My Morning Jacket or Wilco on an experimental kick. Last Thursday at the Casbah, Snaith tied up this diverse palette with a fat beat and dropped it all over a late-night dance party. Continue reading…
For a show whose key components included a smoke machine and a guy singing soprano, there was nothing cheesy about The Besnard Lakes‘ May 12 performance at the Casbah. Over the course of three albums, the Montreal four-piece has made its name playing loud, epic art-rock with a sugary Beach Boys center. Their cinematic compositions could have sounded sloppy or unruly in a live setting, but the band proved that they needn’t rely on recording studio trickery. Continue reading…
If you go to a lot of concerts — as many of you do — a certain malaise begins to set in. Even if you’re discerning enough to attend only worthwhile shows, after a while they all start to feel the same. There are the lackluster opening acts, the wallet-draining drinks, and the way the tallest guy in the place inevitably decides to stand — or worse, sway — directly in front of you. After a while, the ringing in your ears and the joint pain from standing for three hours can threaten to drown out an otherwise fine music experience.
But then there are the shows that remind you why you go out — and they snap you out of your funk. Saturday’s show at the Casbah was just such an event, thanks to powerhouse performances by precocious punk divas The Glossines, L.A. Spector-pop ensemble Jail Weddings, and Arizona blues oddity Bob Log III. Continue reading…