Live Review: mewithoutyou / Murder By Death
Posted 08/17/2010 05:40AM by Stephen Harris as Show Review
It was a hot day in Baltimore. We almost set a record high temperature and the humidity made everything feel like the swamp the city was built over. Now, being a man who was weaned on un-air conditioned dives in “Famously Hot!” South Carolina (seriously – my band once played in a decommissioned chicken coop), I’m used to the heat and even make fun of others who say that Maryland is a humid state. But the Buried Beds, Murder By Death and mewithoutYou show at the Ottobar was something else. More on that later.
Philadelphia’s soon-to-be-indie-darlings Buried Beds opened up the show with great aplomb. It’s pretty reasonable to assume that most of the people in the crowd had never heard or even heard of this band, but I’m pretty sure most people walked away from the show impressed. Playing a style of orchestral and sometimes surprisingly technical indie pop akin to a more straightforward Sufjan Stevens or Anathallo or a less-sassy The Format, they hit every instance of busy auxiliary percussion and complex three part harmonies creating an incredibly lush and layered sound. From their first few notes, they were absolutely flawless, and the crowd noticed, bursting into wild applause rarely heard for an unknown opener. For their last song, mewithoutYou came out and banged on a myriad of drums and sang backing vocals, and it was a truly room-filling sound. They might have even overshadowed the two bands they were opening for. I certainly wouldn’t want to have to follow them.
It’s on pretty wide consensus that Murder By Death is a drinking band, and like any good bar or saloon, they didn’t really get going until a while after they started. I don’t profess to be a major fan of the band’s hipster-western-at-the-apocalypse sound, but their first three or four songs were lacking energy, which may have been due to the creeping heat. However, they truly picked it up during their end-of-the-world showtune “You Don’t Miss Twice When You’re Shaving With a Knife” and the crowd finally started to get into it. After this song, everything else raved along and the energy in the venue picked up. The band got more raucous, the fans got more loose, and even non-fans (like my companion and I) were getting into it. Although I still feel they’re better at creating interesting soundscapes and atmospheres than they are at making memorable songs, their live show (mostly) proved to be a rocking, fun time that shouldn’t be missed.
mewithoutYou were next and the venue was crazy-packed, and merely walking to the bar became an ordeal. This coupled with the extreme heat made things stifling and oppressive. People got a little restless and even began cheering for the band when they simply came on for their sound check (those poor, sheltered Christian rock kids). Vocalist Aaron started the show with one of their “spider” songs and quickly moved into the favorite “Messes of Men”. After a quiet opening, the band boomed in and everything went a little hazy. The noise combined with the heat and the swaying and the sweating made me a little woozy. It was a lot to take in, and I suspect I wasn’t the only one in the venue feeling it, but there’s something about extreme heat, fatigue and loud music that puts one into a rapturous trance, and mewithoutYou did it. The crowd would alternate between singing every work and stumbling around in some sort of ecstasy. Sometimes even the band would switch between being a rocking band and just another one of the dehydrated masses feeling a part of something larger. It’s difficult to describe the feeling, and the band’s religiosity aside it’s truly an awe-inspiring kind of event where I had chills more than once during the show.
While the oddly indescribably air and attitude of the set could allow this reviewer to unanimously praise the band and make serious comparisons to the effects of a Native American sweat lodge, mewithoutYou seemed to be having a difficult time. A combination of heat and amplifier problems made the band sluggish at times, most notoriously during the ambient section of “King Beetle on a Coconut Estate.” Someone’s amplifier kept rattling and making awful feedback noises, and it looked for a moment like the band might just stop the song and move on to something else. Luckily they were able to keep it together for the song’s rousing conclusion. Despite some minor hiccups in other songs, the band played a great mix of old and new songs, with the loudest point being “January 1979”, showing us that the band still has it when it comes to driving post-hardcore. A special mention needs to go to drummer Rickie Mazotta. While the focus is typically on the band’s lyrics, he is their secret weapon, and he goes crazy whenever they play live. Think of a non-douche Jack Black being one of the sickest drummers in the world, wild nervous energy, crazy facial expressions and everything else included. I had a perfect view of Mr. Mazotta the whole show, and I am convinced he is the reason the band was able to keep it together.
Release and exhaustion were the words on my parched tongue on the way out. Once the venue cleared, I could see that the floor was one giant puddle. I guess it’s possible, but improbable that everyone spilled a beverage. Most likely, the floor was noticeably shiny and slick with sweat. Anywhere else, this would be a disgusting display of people at their most unattractive. But at this show, I saw it as a sign that music has the power to bring us together at our worst and make us all siblings and friends with a common goal. I tried not to slip on the way out and buzzed out silently with one of the best natural highs possible.
Comments
Illinois
sounds like a pretty awesome show. awesome write up for sure.
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Minnesota
I've never understood the fascination with mewithoutyou. I've seen them twice and thought they were ok, but they felt spastic just for the sake of being spazzy, and their recorded material has never resonate that well with me. Yet, everyone creams themselves over any mention of the band.
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Fishers, Indiana
I probably would've killed myself at a show with that kind of heat. I remember when I saw Circa and Coheed at the Electric factory. The place was beastly hot and for some reason the fucktards who were up front for Torche thought it would be cool to start mosh pits during Circa songs, which only made it hotter. I bought and chugged two four dollar Powerades after the set and stood in the "I'm 30 and still go to shows but stand at the way back and reply to emails on my Blackberry" section for Coheed.
And while the show sounded entertaining, and even though I like (some) Murder by Death and just about everything mwY has ever done, I don't think I'd catch either band live. Aaron's vocals seem horrible in any live videos I watch. He and Tim Kasher are two vocalists I am more disappointed by with each successive release.
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COB Basrah, Al Basrah, Iraq
It's because MWY pretty much stand alone in the vocal and lyrics dept.
Both styles for music are nearly one of a kind.
Personally I cannot stand the new album but everything before that is gold.
...and God saw everything that he had made and behold it was good and God created man and man created machine and machine... machine created music and machine saw everything it had created and it said - Behold!
Portland, OR
I've seen MWY twice, and both times they blew me away. The new stuff is definitely better live than on the record, but it doesn't hold a candle to their older stuff.
Oklahoma
I've never understood how someone can be such a huge fan of La Dispute, yet find nothing of appeal in mwY - particularly [A-->B] Life. EXPLAIN!