At The Fillmore, San Francisco
This was the fourth time I have seen The Walkmen perform, and each time has been brilliant.
Over the years, The Walkmen have become one of my favorite bands. It came as a bit of a surprise to me because they don’t stand out or have a distinct signature sound that I can pinpoint, but they have been consistently good without being redundant.
The show kicked off with Dan Mangan, who played upbeat indie folk that got the crowd cheering and moving; a rarity for a relatively unknown opening act, in my experience. To close the set, Mangan played the song “Robots,” and he coaxed the crowd into singing along.
“Robots need love too,” the audience cooed. “They want to be loved by you, they want to be loved by you.”
He jumped down into the crowd and played next to audience members like they were old friends at a local gig.
The tone changed dramatically when Japandroids stepped onto the stage.
Everything about their set reminded of a high school garage band.
Fuzzed out guitar and crashing drums created as much noise as they could muster.
Guitarist Brian King snapped his head about so frenetically that I could only be amazed that he managed to keep his balance throughout the set.
After each song, King quickly inserted an awkward “thank you” to the audience. Considering the amount of buzz this band has been receiving, their earnestness made me think they truly had just stepped straight out of their parents’ garage.
These two strong opening acts were a great build up to The Walkmen.
Out of all the times I have seen them play, I felt that this was their best set. The song choices were spot on, mixing the best tracks from their previous albums with plenty from Lisbon, which was released that day.
When the opening melody from “We’ve Been Had” started to play on the piano, I could feel the smile appear on my face. It’s one of my favorites, and the rest of the crowd loved it too.
One young woman in the audience was particularly excited throughout the set.
“I love you, Hamilton!” she shrieked between sips of beer. “You’re the love of my life!”
Paul Maroon, who way playing piano at the time, overheard this profession and grimaced. My friend had the same reaction and they made eye contact as they shared one of those moments when you know exactly what the other person is thinking, because you’re thinking the same thing too.
The girl continued to declare her love throughout the set while the band did their best to ignore her. At one point a man in the audience mimicked her and shouted loving praise to the band, and everyone on that side of the audience couldn’t help but laugh.
Despite the distractions, the band played perfectly and kept the crowd dancing.
To end the night, they played their encore standard and fan favorite, “The Rat.”
Photos courtesy of Rachel at ohdeerly.blogspot.com, with some editing by me
