When you’re right in the middle of a tour, you’re bound to be tired. And when you’re tour is as intense and long as the one The Walkmen are currently on, then you’re downright pleased when you can pull yourself on stage. Well at a recent performance in Lawrence, KS the band not only pulled themselves on stage, but gave old and new fans alike an excellent evening of music.
To set the tone of the evening early, the guys threw in “Blue As Your Blood” out early in the game. A Johnny Cash- kinda cowboy song, with one of their most defined rhythms. It invoked a mixture of toe taps and body boogies, while gradually pulling in each audience member to the show. A show that managed to shift between newer selections off of recent album Lisbon, as well as some “classics” from The Walkmen of ‘ole.
The emotion-stricken number “Victory”, was a golden nugget of the night. A song that consisted about 70% of pure beat notes. There were barely any chords to mellow you out. Instead it was a quick dance of sounds bouncing from the guitar, to the piano and back to the bass. Eventually the gut wrenching came out, though it seemed to come from the back of the stage, as opposed to the front. The drums and piano had some heartache to get out themselves.
Ending off their full set was “In The New Year”, a song that included the characteristic Walkmen vibe of we’re-gonna-get-through-this. Huge guitar drops, set to rock ballad percussion, made this a great selection to end with.
However with as large of a library as these gentlemen have, of course there will be an encore. And as one audience member yelled “they’re not playing ‘The Rat’”, it was obvious they had one more thing to include for a complete night. Thus the night ended with “The Rat” and easily one of their highest energy, most rock induced numbers. In a time of the Kings Of Leon, this is a song that can go against the best. Vocals go raw and angry, while the tempo kicks it to a slightly insane level. Everything’s a little to fast to really sing along to, but it’s easily the song most people wanted to hear.
For a band standing on a stage with 4 colored lights behind them and an eager audience in front, this challenged the Walkmen to have a show that grabbed everyone by the ears and held on for the entire time. And from the reactions of old time fans, to the teenie boppers floating around, it was easy to see they succeeded.
