with The Wave Pictures & The Big Picture
Local 506
4/27/2012
My excitement for this show appeared to be inversely proportional to the attendance of it. Having no idea if anyone listens to Allo Darlin' or not, I eagerly bought a ticket right after they were released. Turns out that wasn't necessary. And while I wish more folks had been there to see this incredible band, part of me loves that it felt like I had them all to myself (or more like all to our fifty-or-so selves). The band live, in a word, was fantastic. Very, very tight and professional musically, as any good pop band should be. Not sure if I'm dense or it's just not easy to tell, but I had no idea how many of their songs had ukelele in them - singer Elizabeth Morris manned the tiny guitar on at least three-quarters of their performance. And speaking of her - oh that voice....angelic, golden, insert your own descriptor. I've never been huge on female singers, but the ones I do like I really, really, REALLY like. And Ms. Morris' voice is as good as any I've seen live in years. They played much of their new album "Europe" as well as a fair bit of their self-titled debut. The crowd, while small, were more than enthusiastic - these people were just as happy seeing Allo Darlin' as I was, and we all made up for poor attendance by cheering extra hard between songs. Hopefully the band had a good time and come back again...I'd probably still buy an advanced ticket, as I'd never want to chance missing them.
There were a couple of openers, first of which was The Big Picture. A local band apparently, they had a hippie-pop sound and felt like the house band of some sort of free love cult. I guess you'd compare them to Edward Sharpe, which means you're basically comparing them to Rusted Root, and that seems like an insult when I'm not really looking to insult the group. There was a bunch of them on stage including a standing drummer and a couple of cute gals and I think at least a pair of brothers. You ever been sorta impressed by a band, but at the same time not that into them? That was these guys for me. I'd give them another listen though if they were playing with someone I wanted to see.
The middle group was The Wave Pictures, who were over from England doing the whole tour with Allo Darlin'. At their best they reminded me of a ramshackle Clientele, but for some reason they deemed it a good idea to insert guitar solos, sometimes more than one, into every single song. No doubt the guitarist was incredibly talented, but hearing it song after song it was a bit too much for me. They seemed like nice lads though and were great at awkward banter between songs, just wish I could have gotten into their music more.
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