If you haven’t yet educated yourself about Seattle’s own the Head and the Heart, do it. Well, read this first and then go watch their videos, buy their album, see them live, etc.
After hearing so much good stuff about the Head and the Heart from many of my friends around Seattle, I finally got to see this marvelous band on Friday at their first headlining show at Neumo’s – which was 21+, and sold out. To say that I was proud is an understatement. You see, the Head and the Heart just officially signed to Sub-Pop Records on Jan. 11, even though it was worst kept secret around Seattle for at least a few weeks. You can actually buy their debut album on iTunes now, and it’s being re-released in physical form under Sub-Pop in April.
But enough background. Let’s talk about the awesome night of local music I had on Friday!
Opening the show was Lemolo, a girl duo made up of Meagan Grandall on keyboard and guitar and Kendra Cox on drums and also keyboard. It was Cox’s grandfather’s Casio- I came to find out because her father was standing next to me in the crowd and he could not stop gushing about the band. “That’s my daughter up there,” he kept telling people around us. It was cute.
Lemolo surprised me. You definitely would not expect that much sound to come from just two girls, but the girls’ stage presence is full of so much passion that once you see them, you get it. With Grandall’s sultry voice and confident stance, Cox’s infectious energy at both the keyboard and drums, and their impeccable harmonies, Lemolo brought the house down, even if it wasn’t full at that point. Grandall even said, “Tonight Kendra is playing drums for the first time in heels. I’m proud of her.”
“They’re really tall, see?!” Cox shouted back with glee.
Lemolo played through a strong set of songs off their couple EPs, including the incredibly catchy “Open Air” and the understated and sexy “Whale Song.” It was both Lemolo’s strong local connection and their obvious friendship that made their performance so enjoyable, and that theme led throughout the night as Curtains For You took the stage.
Turning up the energy, retro-pop band Curtains for You brought smiles across the faces of the whole crowd, most certainly. Fronted by brothers Matthew and Mike Gervais, Curtains for You has a sound familial to Kay Kay and the Weathered Underground, Rufus Wainwright, perhaps the Beach Boys, and even a bit of vaudevillian charm in there.
Seriously, during toe-tapper ragtime track “Small Change,” we not only had the drums, guitar, bass, and keyboard on stage, but also the saxophone and sousaphone. It’s a wonder that Curtains for You has been around since 2004 and I’ve never heard of them, because they have enough energy for venues three times the size of Neumo’s. They played songs off their 2009 album What A Lovely Surprise To Wake Up Here as well as their 2010 EP Heaven’s Waiting, all of which had earnest and lovely lyrics but powerful arrangements that filled up the crowded room.
Just when I thought the night could not get any better, guests of honor the Head and the Heart took the stage to a wild round of applause, and jumped right into the sweet little ditties “Popsicle” and the gospel-tinged “Cats & Dogs.” I can say, I’ve never seen so much love in one room before. It made me proud to be a Seattleite, seeing how much this band had accomplished in less than a year and how much the Seattle music community supported them.
“Some of us are from Virginia, and every time we leave, it makes us realize how fucking lucky you are,” said guitarist Jonathan Russell, which was met with more applause. “I mean, we like Virginia too, it’s nice.”
“We love Virginia!” Chimed in violinist Charity Rose Thielen.
There was not a down moment during that performance, as they started the unbelievably catchy “Ghosts,” which ended in a giant sing-along of “ba-da-ba-da-ba-ba! I’d seriously never been to a sold-out 21+ show, but it may be my new favorite thing. You’ve got all the love and energy of an all-ages show without all the precocious teenagers stinking up the place with their bad weed.
The middle of their set was the so-called “low-energy” songs, but they were no less beautiful, with “Sounds Like Hallelujah,” “Lost In My Mind,” “Seat Beside Me” and “Winter Song.”
“You see, what’s great about headlining is that the stage is for all intents and purposes yours for the night. You get to choose the awesome bands to play with, and because of Derek right over there,” and Josiah Johnson pointed over at a tall man shoved in a corner of the room and he waved, “you get to have people come up on stage with you if you want.” So instantly the women who were crowded up front near me shuffled their way to the tiny staircase and I’d say at least a couple dozen people on that stage singing and dancing along to “Lost In My Mind.”
What I love so much about the Head and the Heart is that they mix southern charm, northwest passion, and a whole heck of a lot of talent between the five of them. Seriously, I will drive up to Ballard on Sunday nights just for a chance to see any of them play at the Conor Byrne open mic night, which, from what I’ve heard is quite a good time.
After Johnson inquired if anyone in the audience was from a state that started with “T” and people started spouting out random states, the band played a great cover of Johnny Cash’s “T is for Texas.” As the hour passed midnight, I was already on a musical high, but then they closed the night out with a goosebump-inducing performance of my favourite song “Down in the Valley,” and an even more moving version of “Rivers and Roads,” which wasn’t even on the first printing of their debut album.
After the amazing extended version of “Rivers and Roads,” the band exited the stage while the crowd already started chanting for an encore. But the problem was this – they’re a new band. They’d already played all their songs, so they were out of songs to play for an encore, and it took the audience quite a long to figure that out. Honestly, they wouldn’t leave.
But who would, really? You wouldn’t want to leave that high behind. The Head and the Heart was that good, so good that you didn’t want to leave even when the show was over.
Setlist: (There was one song they added in at some point that wasn’t on the setlist, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was.)
- Popsicle
- Cats & Dogs
- Coeur d’Alene
- Ghost
- Love You Long Time
- Sounds like Hallelujah
- Honey
- Seat Beside Me
- Heaven
- Lost in my mind
- T is for Texas
- Winter Song
- New Jam
- Down in the Valley
- Rivers and Roads
