Okkervil River and The New Pornographers - Newport Music Hall, Columbus, OH - April 11th, 2008

Okkervil River and The New Pornographers will complete their tour together on Tuesday, April 22, at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland, OH. Two days later, on Thursday, April 24, Okkervil River will perform at The Mad Hatter in Covington, KY, with two prominent local bands, Wussy and Turnbull ACs. The Wheel’s Still In Spin highly recommends this show and will definitely be present for a double dose of live Okkervil River this month. Buy tickets here.

Bands focus the majority of their sets on their more recent works. Therefore, logic would propose that it is best to witness a performance after the band’s best work. With that said, the double billing of Okkervil River and The New Pornographers posed a dichotomy. For this reviewer, The New Pornographers’ best album was 2000's Mass Romantic. The band’s three subsequent releases were not as strong as that debut. Okkervil River, on the other hand, released their best album, The Stage Names, in August of 2007. Each of their four full-length albums has been a step up in production, skill, and songwriting.

Okkervil River, however, was in the first position in the lineup. As they took to the stage, a majority of the audience was present and prepare for a spectacular double bill. The evening opened with “The President’s Dead,” from a 12 inch single, as singer Will Sheff played the first verses solo on his acoustic guitar. They also selected songs from all four of their full-length albums while concentrating the majority of the set to tracks from The Stage Names.

With their second song, “A Hand To Take Hold Of The Scene,” the band initiated the audience in supporting the downbeats with handclaps. This would last through many numbers of Okkervil River’s set and continue for The New Pornographers.

Okkervil River was passionate and animated. Lead singer Will Sheff bounded around stage, often standing over the edge of the stage, and on occasion shared vocal microphones with bass player Patrick Pestorius. Keyboardist Scott Brackett also played trumpet and provided to the band’s musical multiformity. Travis Nelson had an enchanting demeanor behind the drums. His long, shag hair would enthusiastically flop with each beat, even on the slower songs like “A Girl In Port.” With his endless grin, he was reminiscent of a more upbeat and relaxed version of The Muppet Animal. Much like the other members of the band, the newly adopted guitarist, Charles Bissell of The Wrens, performed flawlessly.

Focusing on catchy melodies and intelligent lyrics, the band offered a diverse sound that stretched into orchestral indie pop at times. The first track from The Stage Names, “Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe,” was full of dynamic changes before the band segued with a wall of symphonic distortion into “For Real” from Black Sheep Boy.

Okkervil River closed their set with “Westfall,” the story from a murderer who is going to be thrown in jail for life. The song ends with the lines, “They’re looking for evil, thinking they can trace it, but evil don’t look like anything.” The audience was prompted to scream along to the repeated refrain of “Evil don’t look like anything” as the band closed out their one hour set.

After the set change, The New Pornographers sauntered on stage. This collective power pop band can be up to 7 members large. Tonight, while band did include Neko Case, who doesn’t always tour with the band, it was missing Dan Bejar, who is on tour with one of his other bands, Destroyer.

The band opened with “My Rights Versus Yours,” the first track off their most recent release. The song showcases frontman Carl Newman’s vocals with Kathryn Cader and Neko Case supporting. By the time Case was given the spotlight on “These Are The Fables,” she flubbed the lyrics and laughed her way through the first line of the second verse. Apologizing and mentioning that she had the lyrics written out did not help her professionalism.

Like Okkervil River, The New Pornographers incited sing-alongs and handclaps. However, compared to their tour mates, The New Pornographers’ stage presence was stoic. There songs were catchy and poppy, but their live sound was a monotonous wall of 2 guitars, 2 keyboards, bass, and drums with a multitude of vocals. All members of the band are skilled musicians, but the songs sounded very similar by the end of the hour and a half set. The band displayed some lightheartedness while Carl Newman was tuning a new electric guitar as they broke into an impromptu version of “Walk The Line.”

The addition of Neko Case to this version of the touring band facilitated performances of some of the earlier songs like “The Laws Have Changed” and “Mass Romantic.” For their encore they played three songs including a cover of ELO’s “Don’t Bring Me Down.” The show ended with an audience favorite, “Slow Decent Into Alcoholism.”

www.okkervilriver.com
www.thenewpornographers.com

The Wheel's Still In Spin's short story review of The Stage Names
The Wheel's Still In Spin's Best Albums Of 2007

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[The Wheel's Still In Spin]

Harry from ThaBombShelter also posted a review of this show. Read it here:
http://thabombshelter.blogspot.com/2008/04/okkervil-riverthe-new-pornographers-at.html
And he posted pictures and some mp3 from the show here:
http://thabombshelter.blogspot.com/2008/04/pictures-and-live-tracks-from-new.html