Review: Middle Brother - The Metro (Chicago)

by Jon Stone | @jwstone -- photo: Kyle Matteson | @solace - March 17, 2011

It’s hard to think of the Middle Brother show in Chicago last Saturday night as just a “show.” It was more than a show. It was a spectacle, a barn-burner -- an extravaganza. This is not hyperbole, folks. The Metro hosted an honest-to-goodness, four-hour Concert Spectacular. The three bands, Deer Tick, Dawes, and Middle Brother, also seem like mere place-holders on a bill that instead featured an explosion of musical collaboration far exceeding the boundaries of what we imagine the word “band” to entail. Rarely was a band on stage without an extra member here or a special cover there. The show was, in a word, epic. Oh, and two more words: Jonny Corndawg.

Rather than diminishing the evening with lack-luster play-by-play, let me instead offer a more-or-less chronological highlights reel:

• Forget the “folk-rock” label, Deer Tick is a heavy, if extremely versatile, band. Their set was LOUD… and then soft. Apply this same genre-busting observation to all three bands and their sets. Each move from folk to soul to country and back to rock, and in the case of Deer Tick, far into heavy territory.
• After hearing about Deer Tick’s upcoming SXSW Nirvana set, it was hard not to see McCauley as a kind of  re-embodiment of Kurt. His hair – his voice – his Fender Jag. If you're in Austin on Saturday, don't miss that. Report back, please.
• Along those lines, Matt Vasquez joined Deer Tick mid-set and played a perfect cover of In Utero’s “Scentless Apprentice.”
• They also covered Springsteen’s “Racing in the Streets,” Vasquez at the helm.
• Deer Tick has a secret weapon in keyboard/sax man Rob Crowell. The dude can wail.
• Dawes is clearly the next big thing. This is a palpable reality now instead of just a likely prediction. They killed with songs off both North Hills and new songs off of a yet-unnamed forthcoming record.
• Near the end of their set, Dawes introduced Jonny Corndawg who proceeded to dance (or, more aptly, boot-scoot) his way into the pockets of the whole crowd. You kind of have to see this guy to believe him. As my buddy said, “Corndawg brought the heart and Goldsmith brought the heartbreak” – a perfect foil, it turned out.
• If Corndawg brought heart, and Goldsmith brought heartbreak, McCauley brought the booze.
• Dawes closed with “When My Time Comes” with Vasquez, McCauley and Corndawg helping out each taking verses. We could have all gone home happy after a set closer like that – the entire room was singing along at the top of their lungs – but alas, at nearly midnight, we still had yet to experience Middle Brother as Middle Brother.
• By the time the headliners officially hit the stage, the night had already been ridiculous – but things then shifted into a full-on hootenanny mode. Instruments were passed around, band members came and went, “Me, Me, Me” and “Middle Brother” became anthems to the chaos and friendship of the moment.
• Middle Brother, if I’m not mistaken, played every song on their record.
• After heavy doses of McCauley and Goldsmith, Vasquez’s songs were visceral.  The smooth-on-the-record waltz “Theater” became this huge, haunted thing on stage. Matt screamed and then screamed some more and oh how we swooned. Same thing on “Someday.”
• Goldsmith continued to bring it with “Thanks for Nothing” and the solo “Wilderness” but my favorite song on the record “Blood and Guts” became something entirely different.  The song started softly and built in crescendo until the bridge came and left me emotionally devastated: “I just wanna get my fist through some glass! I just wanna get your arm in a cast!” Man. I’m still reeling more than 48 hours later.
• Soon after, the heavy mood was displaced when someone dropped a fart bomb. Jonny Corndawg happily claimed it.
• The show closed at nearly 1am with a cover of Sam Cooke’s “Bring it on Home to Me.” I know this song has been played frequently during Deer Tick’s set, but bringing it to Middle Brother gave everyone in all three bands one more excuse to come on stage and sing a verse/play a solo. It couldn’t have been a better song to go out on. Yeah? Yeah.

A night like Saturday seems a rare privilege. Seeing musicians in this context clearly reveling in the opportunity to let loose a bit and share a musical moment with friends was something not soon to be forgotten. Goldsmith, Vasquez and McCauley are on the verge of something big and I think the Middle Brother album and tour will be remembered by them in the same way it will be by us: A galvanizing moment among friends before the floodgates of life and fame sweep everyone in disparate directions toward the blessings and curses of success.

Review: Dawes & Edward Sharpe - The Vogue (Indy)

By Jon Stone | @jwstone - June 9, 2010

Both Dawes and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros will be performing at Bonnaroo this year. I'll be in Manchester to witness the action and will be reporting on my experiences on Muzzle of Bees over the next several days. If you're going to be there, drop a comment with your can't-miss bands. If you're on twitter, include your twit-handle in your comment so I can keep up on your perspective of the fest. Follow my tweetshere. Hope to run into you there!

---

Late last year I gathered my wife and young and departed on an epic three-day voyage across praire and desert. From Midwest heartland back into the bosom of our Sonoran desert homeland. It was a lonely and arduous trip with infreqeunt stops at fastfood playlands as they sprung up like oases along the freeway.
All along our journey we had Dawes.

During that trip, Dawes became our road music. My wife Tina fell in love with the record over those three days and even my kids would ask for and then sing along with "When You Call My Name." So, needless to say, we are fans.
Last night Dawes opened for Edward Shapre & the Magnetic Zeros at the Indianapolis venue The Vogue. Their music again became a family affair as this time I surprised my wife with the show for our anniversary (which was also yesterday). All the way from Champaign to Indy, she only knew I was taking her to a show and that it was going to blow her mind.

It did. Dawes did not disappoint. They played through a good portion of their record North Hills and sprinkled several new songs into the set. One, called "Fire Away" was announced by lead-man Taylor Goldsmith as a song about "how to stay friends with folks even when they aren't acting right." It was a highlight of the set -- it started simply, almost conventionally, but kept on building into a mind-blowing guitar solo and then modulated again into a repeating refrain sung by the drummer, Taylor's younger brother, Griffin. Another new song "If I Wanted Someone" was also played late in the short hour-long set. After the show, I had a quick conversation with Taylor at the merch table. He said that they are hoping to record a new album soon and are looking at a release sometime in 2011. It can't come soon enough.

Edward Sharpe, the pseudonym of Alex Ebert, was the reason that most of the folks were there. And with ten members on the stage, they were a force to be reckoned with. They took the stage in full gypsy regalia -- all beards, scarfs, and smiles. And played an interesting set.  Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros are strongest when the band all seems to be working hard to add to the sound. In other words, the less tambourines on stage, the better. (And wow, do they have some serious tambo action going -- one monster is at least the circumference of a floor tom.).  And the eclecticism(!) -- one moment, the band feels as Arcade Firey as they possibly could but the next they are playing with a distinctly Latin flare. Other songs, "Carries On," for example, move into 60s soul territory. With such a large band, you'd hope that the diversity of membership would have this resulting musical eclecticism. This they had in droves.

As familial as the band claims to be, for me, that sentiment comes across as a bit cliquish on stage. Long pauses between songs while the band talks ("discussions on physics", Ebert joked at one point), strange play-acting from my favorite member of the band, Jade Castrinos, during her tribute song "Jade" (is she really timid and embarrassed about the attention levied on her during that song? Doesn't she hear it every night? And how about a solo album, girl?), and other stuff seemed -- to me -- to say that while yes, we are family and we love each other and pull our tour caravan over often to twirl together in fields, we aren't accepting new members.

They are accepting admirers, though, and wow was the crowd packed with them. With songs like "40 Day Dream," and the amazing "Home" the band is nothing if not crowd pleasing.

My final thought on the night boils down to a question of earnestness. Dawes wears their earnestness on their sleeve -- they can't help it. And perhaps it's their youth or their on-the-brink-of-big-success ardor but it's implicit in the words and music and isn't lost on even the youngest audience (my kids). Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros make their earnestness a more explicit affair. But songs about "Home" and rouccous love-ins make me feel less home than a sweet tune about That Western Skyline.