Review: Sea Wolf, Port O’Brien, Sara Lov @ Talking Head 10/18/09
This past sunday i headed down to The Talking Head to check out Sea Wolf and was surprised with a couple solid opening sets by Port O’Brien and Sara Lov. The night started out a bit delayed as the sound check was still going on well after doors were supposed to be opened, so the crowd just hung out in the lovely talking head alley in hopes of staying out of the way of whatever death metal fest was going on next door at sonar.
When the fairly large crowd (for the talking head) got in and the first opener, Sara Lov, took the stage you could definitely still hear said death metal band as if they were about to come through the wall. This was not a good scenario for a couple reasons: 1) Lov was playing with only the help of an instrumental version of her album mic’d up 2) it was actually skipping from the bass coming from the room next door and 3) her songs were quiet to begin with. This was really unfortunate because it eventually lead to a couple songs having to be stopped and/or stumbled through – and when she was singing and playing i really really liked what i heard.
She was really apologetic and the crowd was in a great “you can do it” mood, so it didn’t take away from her set as much as it could have, but i felt bad for her, as she was obviously shaken by it. The highlights (and reason i bought her EP The Young Eyes) were a perfect-for-the-fall piano ballad “Seasoned Eyes Were Beaming” followed by her dark and deconstructed cover of arcade fire’s “My Body Is a Cage”. I will definitely be keeping an eye on her.
Next up was Port O’Brien – who brought a lot of energy to the stage, but who’s songs weren’t nearly as memorable. They were really into it, and at one point mentioned the singers parents had flown in to see the show, which was cool…but it wasn’t exactly something that kept my interest; that is until their last song, when they passed out pots and pans for people to bang on as they played their 2007 blog favorite “I Woke Up Today”. Will be interesting to see where these guys go next.
Last of the night, but certainly not least, was Sea Wolf, which was comprised of lead singer/guitarist Alex Brown Church (a dead ringer for a younger Jeff Tweedy), a keyboardist, lead guitarist, bass player, drummer, and cellist (excuse my lack of names for the other instrumentalists). I never got their 1st album, but i loved the single as well as what i’d heard of their latest release, White Water, White Bloom…so i was hopeful it would be a good set.
Well, I’m happy to say they met my expectations and then some. Their (his?) live show gave their songs a great jolt, which is great, as i usually hate when live a band sounds just like their album, and Sea Wolf’s mellow-ish songs really benefited from the live versions (not that the album versions arren’t good). Particularly the electric guitar accents (shreds?) in the middle of some songs, which definitely caught me off guard, but were a great surprise. The cellist was also great, as was everyone really. They seemed to also be having a genuinely good time, not unlike the rest of the crowd, who seemed to be really into the band. It was a solid set, and i picked up said album and it’s only gotten better with each listen throughout the week. Especially without the death metal backing track.
Sea Wolf – You’re a Wolf (MP3)
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Tags: Uncategorized , port o'brien , sara lov , sea wolf
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