Do you ever go to a concert only knowing one song bythe headlining act and the band actually plays that very same song first? To your surprise has it ever happened that when the
band launches into song #2, the set actually gets better. I typically do
not write about one band at a time, but my brother-in-law Raimy has told me
previously that he likes when I write about bands that I am listening to at the
moment. Well the two of us, along with our friend JJ decided to check out
The War on Drugs and I was more than pleasantly surprised by their
15-song set.
It had been a journey to get to my first show of The
War on Drugs. A couple of years ago my friend Jen randomly met frontman
Adam Granduciel’s father (feel free to go back & read my May post - My
friend's cousin's band first), and once again, I was being encouraged to listen
to a new band, unseen and unheard. I did some digging online and
what I heard I liked, but I was unable to see their Club Café show in September
2011, or their Altar Bar show in March 2014 so this past month that changed.
Along with approximately 750 other people, I was able to finally see the band
live at Stage AE.
A lot of their songs scream both Dylan as well as E
Street Band particularly the make-up of the band (guitar, bass, drums,
keyboards & saxophone) as well as the anthem-like songs. “Lost in a Dream” went to #3 in Belgium for a reason, right ;)? And more importantly in
light of some other recent shows that I have seen (i.e. My Morning Jacket)
sonically they are doing everything right (except here & there when
Granduciel literally takes my comparisons to Bob Dylan to a new level and could
not fully be understood thru his vocal mic). So in an effort to honor the
50th anniversary of Dylan going electric at the Newport Folk
Festival and the infamous remarks made by Jon Landau ("I have seen the
future of rock and roll, and its name is Bruce Springsteen.") we might
finally be seeing the offspring of those thoughts and its name is The War on
Drugs.
I know that I am not breaking any new ground.
The band has now been around the block a few times, having toured extensively
and received numerous positive reviews, but I believe that when we stumble
across new music that deserves a larger audience, it should be shared.
The band has a few more North American dates this summer before heading back to
Europe, then headlines Radio City Music Hall this fall, so if you get a chance
give them a listen before tickets are extremely hard to come by.
Thanks for reading.
