When I arrived at the Venue, it wasn’t a full house by any means. The first opener, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. (no relation), was already on stage offering rock-ish/pop-ish sounds. Their songs have good bounce to them and the 70 or so people already on the dance floor (with more in all other areas of the Venue) did do a good bit of that. For one song, the singer even leapt down into the dance floor to join the crowd. The band performed as a three-piece. One played bass guitar & keyboard, one played guitar & keyboard, and the third played only keyboard. One did most of the singing and the other two provided back-up vocals. The final song was less pop and more full-on rock (reminding me of Rage Against the Machine a bit). From what I observed, they did a decent job. The band were under the impression there were mic issues, but it sounded alright from where I was standing. The ending I thought was a bit unceremonious – as soon as the last note finished, they immediately began unplugging their instruments and gathering the cords. No bow, no thanks much, straight to taking stuff apart. I get it, they’re on a schedule, not everyone has techie help, but still, visually, I found it odd.
Another odd thing, and I could be wrong, but to my reckoning, neither band thanked Atlas Genius or gave the other opener a mention, which is unusual.
The first (and most recent) time I saw Family of the Year, they were one of the openers for Cincinatti’s Walk the Moon, here at The Venue and I went home with their CD Loma Vista. I like how much more energy their music has in a live situation, I like how they mix it up – from everyone singing melody to a more traditional lead vocal with harmony / back-up vocals, I like that instrumental solos are more about instrumentation than showboating, I like how ‘together’ they appear – a real unit. There isn’t a lot of talking between songs and the crowd doesn’t seem too interested in clapping along, but they do dance and cheer with enthusiasm. Stylistically, they’re generally on the folk/pop side of modern rock, and the indie side of pop, with the last song blowing all of the indie-folkiness out of the water as vocalist-guitarist Joseph Keefe (I think) exchanges his acoustic guitar for an electric one, there’s a real funk in the bass line and I liked this song the most. As you can tell with my attempts at music styles, trying to define it properly, this band’s sound appears to me to have multiple personalities. Hero is their most successful song to date and it’s this melodic ditty that most people know them from and as a band, they have a lot more music in different styles up their collective sleeves. Not that there’s any pressure to pick one style, but it might streamline their sound.
That other time I saw Family of the Year, I remember them as being more chatty with the audience. Even if they weren’t truly ‘feeling it’ this evening, it was still a good show and the crowd of several hundred certainly made their appreciation audible. Big cheers and applause at the end of their 7-song, 35-minute set.
Vocalist Keith Jeffery says hello to the audience between songs telling them that it’s good to be back. I wouldn’t have thought singing and gum-chewing go together, but to each their own. Atlas Genius’s previous show was at this exact venue, in late May of this year and you can read the review of that show I wrote for Concert Addicts here. The next song gets introduced as the title track of their CD, therefore making it When It was Now. On a observational note, I find it interesting that when Keith Jeffrey is playing guitar without his brother Michael or the keyboardist playing along that the crowd gets a bit restless and people begin talking amongst themselves almost immediately. It’s like they don’t comprehend that someone is playing live, on stage, mere feet away, and yet after the first four rows of people, they don’t really care enough to pay attention. Before any awkwardness can develop, the guitar noodling turns into a discernible instrumental introduction, to Back Seat. It’s as though, as far as this audience was concerned, drums + keyboard + guitar = something worth paying attention to. Speaking of Back Seat, it featured an extended instrumental bridge with a nice build-up through to the pick-up into the last few bars of it. If you have the chops, THIS is exactly why a live show will always be superior to any recording – the songs you know are not merely reproduced, they are used to create something different. As if you’re covering your own material and are claiming it yet again. Now that the audience is back, they feel it too. At the end of the song, the band receive the loudest cheers thus far.
We continue almost without pause with an extended instrumental intro that morphs into the more recognisable one belonging to All These Girls, and by extended, I mean there was a good 2-minute stretch of music complete with disco ball glitter reflections against the backdrop. For the song itself, the backing vocals weave in and out ever so smoothly. Not bad, I’m not wowed, but, at least the gum has disappeared by this point in the show (thank you, Keith).
Symptoms, on the other hand, surprised me. It was amped up and the only word I could think of to describe it, especially the guitar part, was searing. That truly was wow. The aforementioned Keith takes a moment to thank each of the openers and he also thanks the audience. A little nod to the weather, he thought it was warm here, funny, since the band are returning home to Australia to one of the warmest springs on record, but since they have come through the American Midwest, some places along the route have already experienced frost and so perhaps it is a fair point.
Don’t Make A Scene was next. The audience was issued an invitation to clap along during the minimalist ooohs of the song that were virtually a capella but for the drums keeping things steady. I’m not seeing much of a connection between Keith and the audience and as the frontman of the duo (plus touring keyboardist), it’s kind of on him. Yes, he does wander to centre stage a number of times with a spotlight on him, but I thought last time there was more of a rapprochement with the also sold-out crowd then.
Through the Glass I adored – there is that lovely syncopation in the chorus that if you’re not paying attention could fool you into thinking the time signature was 6/8 except you have beats left over at the end of the bar. There is clapping from the audience during the instrumental bits. No invitation, they just do. Next is a splashy-flashy beginning that has to wind down in order for Electric to start properly. Again, these guys do enjoy just PLAYING. There is an attempt at clapping around the middle of the song, it doesn’t take off. Nonetheless, this is one of my favourite songs – I like the full-on keyboard that provides great underpinning for the guitar to add some tension and drive. A solid power chord finish ends the first part of the show at just after quarter past 10.
The big applause and loud cheers from the audience doesn’t need go on endlessly, the band are only off long enough to get a beer (not actually drink any of it, yet), so they were back in under a minute. Keith mentions that it’s the second last show of the tour and another thanks to the audience for selling out the concert.
There’s another slow and quiet start to start the encore, but people haven’t shut up yet and they really don’t for the entirety of the instrumental, which blessedly gets loud enough to drown them out. Centred on You is the first song of the encore after the previous musical interlude and although the keyboard does give the music a certain ‘80s vibe at time, I do like how the guitar tries to detach itself from that. Before the final song of the night (I’ll give you one guess) Keith thanks the audience again, announces the final song, and tries to leave it with a “See you again soon”. As before, it’s not THE intro to the song people are anticipating, but it’s solid and firing on all cylinders – the real intro gets a count-in and it becomes clear to even the most obtuse attendee that this is the one song the audience have come to hear, because for most of them, I would wager it’s the only one they know. They sing along to the first verse and to the chorus of Trojans, but not much else. It’s also their last chance for a good bounce-along to the infectious rhythm until Keith has to call a halt to the song. There’s something that happened “over there”, which was house right and as I was on house left, I saw and heard nothing. Whatever it was, it was of enough concern to warrant interrupting the song people had been waiting all night for. When the something was over/dealt with, it was like it never happened, minus the extended intro – a count in and off they all went, complete with much, MUCH happy bouncing for the chorus. Live, this song properly rocks, even with a restart. We conclude the evening’s musical festivities at 10:40 pm.
Ironically, during and after the interruption, I must confess this was the most animated I’d seen Keith all night, right down to grins of disbelief at what happened. It makes me wonder: How long have they been on tour? Even if most of the show was the equivalent of ‘phoning it in’, technically it was a well executed show; it was just lacking in the ‘connection with the audience’ department, and I think of the two shows, I did enjoy the concert in May more. The band may have as well, for all I know - winning hearts and minds, and all that. Mind you, some of that was definitely the audience – in addition to the aforementioned behaviour, before the band finished playing their final notes, to my chagrin, 1/3 of the dance floor (the front part) started leaving and heading for the exit. Yup, that’s dedication right there for you. Let’s put it this way, at the beginning of tear-down, a techie had to wander into what was left of the dance floor to give a setlist to one of the few remaining people on the floor – a good 20’ away from the stage. Oh, Vancouver. I would’ve happily accepted a setlist (sniff).
Setlist:
On a Day
If So
When It was Now
Back Seat
All These Girls
Symptoms
Don’t Make A Scene
Through the Glass
Electric
Encore:
Centred on You
Trojans
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