A road trip with all the girls to see a show; what better way to spend a Friday night? That’s precisely what I did last week and every painful cent of gas money was worth it.
We arrived at the Firebird with what couldn’t have been more perfect timing. We walked in, paid our dues, settled into the crowd, and the show began. There was a large crowd which both bands deserved: The Antlers hadn’t been through St. Louis in quite some time, and the opening band Little Scream was an enjoyable forty minutes of music, not just a time waster that a lot of openers can be. Hailing from Montreal, Canada, the trio was reminiscent of female-fronted Company of Thieves mixed with the distorted vocals of Karen O. from the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s. I was digging it. They kept the crowd entertained, and with more than just music alone. The drummer recited celebrity birthdays and deaths in between songs. Definitely a first. Maybe a little strange, but hey, it made the band memorable.
The crowd packed in tighter and I somehow found myself right up front by the time The Antlers started their set. Sweet! The heavenly choir of angels – I mean The Antlers – opened with “Parentheses” from their new album Burst Apart and it was absolutely gorgeous. There was no introduction, no “how ya doin’ St. Louis,” just music. And I couldn’t have asked for anything better. They transitioned right into Kettering from 2009 release Hospice before taking a little break for banter about mustaches. Next was a string of five new songs which all ran together into one long symphony. The entire crowd seemed to be in a trance. I had seen The Antlers once before (the previous summer at Lollapalooza) but nothing even comes close to the experience of a small, intimate setting like the one I was experiencing. It was all I could do to not close my eyes and get lost in the depths of my thoughts for the rest of the set. And they played a lengthy one too; ten songs, with an encore of three for a total of an hour and twenty minutes of ethereal melodies.
With Hospice being such a heavy and dense album, one would think that The Antlers’ live shows would be a drag. It’s really quite the opposite though, and Burst Apart, while still somewhat mellow and somber, is on the lighter side and has its jammable moments. In the words of a Metro Chicago tweet, “FYI, I’m probably gonna cry-dance at The Antlers’ show.”
Set list:
Parentheses
Kettering
No Widows
I Don’t Want Love
French Exit
Rolled Together
Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out
Bear
Hounds
Putting The Dog To Sleep
Two
Corsicana
Wake
www.littlescream.com
www.antlersmusic.com
