Show review: Archers of Loaf at Middle East Downstairs – 4/27
Reunited Chapel Hill indie rockers Archers of Loaf played the first of two nights at Cambridge’s Middle East Downstairs last Friday, with support from Merge label-mates Pipe and newcomers Hundred Visions.
Hundred Visions kicked off the evening on an appropriate note with a sound indebted to but not derivative of their hosts. The Austin, Texas based quartet of Ben Maddox (vocals and guitar), Wes Turner (bass), Johnny Krueger (guitar) and Eric Loftis (drums) delivered fast songs with a slightly ragged, noisy edge. Loftis’ tight drumming and Turner’s complex, occasionally funk-leaning bass lines formed a solid rhythm section, providing a platform from which the band’s dual guitarists really impressed. Maddox’s riffs were the more straightforward, while Krueger provided the slightly off-kilter melodies and occasional waves of feedback. A fun and energetic set to start the night.
I would venture to guess that no one in the room not already familiar with Merge veterans and fellow Chapel Hill exports Pipe expected the group of modestly dressed middle-aged men to tear into some punk jams quite the way they did. Audience members were calling out vocalist Ron Liberti for dressing like Mr. Rogers as soon as he walked on stage, but he and guitarist Mike Kenlan, bassist Dave Alworth and drummer Chuck Garrison ripped through their set with a sense of humor to match their energy. Liberti is a born frontman, swinging his mic stand around, dancing like a madman and holding ongoing conversations with the front row of the audience, in between delivering lyrics with a surprising snarl. Pipe are in the midst of a reunion themselves, having technically dissolved following a disastrously injury-prone final tour in the late nineties. The band’s energy and evident love of performance certainly wouldn’t give that away though. Pipe are a blast to watch, and it seems a shame that they go unheralded in the typical circles of nineties indie rock appreciation. Seriously, trying Googling these guys and see how far you get.
An atmosphere of nostalgia was in the air following Pipe’s set, fitting for the forthcoming Archers of Loaf show this audience had waited fourteen years for. The Middle East’s downstairs was packed to capacity with a whole lot of people who love this band. I never connected with Archers until Merge’s much heralded reissue of Icky Mettle last year, but I could still appreciate the thrill of seeing a broken up and much beloved band making an unexpected return to the stage. It’s a fantastic and surreal experience, especially when a band chooses to follow the example of Pavement or The Dismemberment Plan and do the damn thing right.
Archers were in fine form on Friday night, re-establishing themselves as a uniquely talented band. None of their four full-lengths sound exactly the same, and none precisely follow any of the typical indie rock templates. The band always took a slightly left-field approach, mixing guitars which were alternately carving out weirdly catchy melodies and blaring distorted chords with the occasional post-rock dynamics shift and frontman Eric Bachmann’s sung, spoken and shouted vocals to great effect. All of this was immediately on display during their set, opening with the slow burn instrumental which would eventually explode into the massive chorus of ‘Audiowhore.’ Based on the number of shout-alongs and huge smiles, this would be a crowd-pleasing evening.
Bachmann, clad in a trucker’s cap that reminded me of Kurt Wagner, was an imposingly tall presence on stage. He had little to say, but his lyrics, sharply commenting on everything from crumbling relationships to the state of the music scene, spoke plenty. He and fellow guitarist Eric Johnson also proved that they’ve lost none of their chops over the years, effortlessly recreating their original dual-guitar attacks. Bassist Matt Gentling doubled the energy of anyone else on stage, jumping back and forth constantly and whipping his notoriously heavy aluminum-necked Travis Bean bass around like it was a twig. The other guys may not have looked quite so animated, but they clearly still enjoyed sharing a stage together. The biggest laugh of the night came when Johnson yelled “I hate you guys!” as Bachmann and drummer Mark Price botched a count-in.
The setlist drew heavily from the recently reissued Vee Vee, but also included a large chunk of Icky Mettle, as well as a few EP cuts and appearances from the band’s final two records. A haunting set-closer of the title track from White Trash Heroes was especially impressive, employing a guest guitarist and Gentling on a synthesizer. All in all, it was a difficult set to argue with. Archers avoided all the traps of reunion touring, delivering a tight set of their still fantastic songs to a crowd that couldn’t have been happier to hear them.
Enjoy some halfway decent photos of Hundred Visions and Pipe, and suffice with iPhone shots of Archers. My camera battery inexplicably died immediately as they took the stage.
Hundred Visions:
Pipe:
Archers of Loaf:
