Midlake
2/14/7
Scubas Tavern in Chicago
You know the kind of songs you know so well you can almost feel them leaving impressions upon your bones with every note sung? Such is the case with many Midlake songs. The Trials of Van Occupanther was not just one of my top albums of 2006 but one I experienced with completeness. I fell into the album like a well, absorbing myself in its songs throughout the summer, plunging deep to emerge much later soaked with rich lyricism and guitar chords as well as vocal harmonies. Hearing these songs live brought a bit of bliss because of their heavy familiarity.
Of course, Denton Texas’s Midlake did grace Chicago with their presence this summer but instead of playing a place like Schubas, they decided to enrich the sun soaked audience at Lollapallooza with their melodies and so I missed seeing them and actually sent them a message begging them to come back to Chicago and play a smaller venue. Bringing this act to fruition also delivered them the fans of two sold out shows.
Live, the five piece played in front of a backdrop screen showing bits of films. (One of which was Andrei Roublev by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky according to a friend of mine.) It created a tone but made the music more part of a landscape than a centerpiece the same way the visuals made it more difficult to distinguish their facial features at certain points.
The songs came off fairly similar as they do on album and, while they concentrated more heavily on The Trials of Van Occupanther , they did play one new song and a couple of earlier quirky ones from an earlier album Banman and Silvercork including “Balloon Man.” They made these songs work well into the fabric of the night. The choice to play their biggest hit, “Roscoe” as their second song was an interesting one because it gave the impression that they may have wanted to get it over with. The song they saved until the end of the full set, “Head Home” was surprisingly much more catchy live than the single and their two song encore to end the night brought the evening round to a state of gentleness. My one criticism is that despite the tightness of their songs, it benefited mainly those that were most familiar with them already. One thing that might add to them in a live setting is to speed them up a little more or just rock them out a bit more…not too much as to preserve their subtle graces but enough to really open up the catchy glories inside of them.
View the complete photo set with St. Vincent on flickr
click for setlist and further tour dates:
Midlake’s setlist:
Remaining Tour dates:
Feb 22 2007 8:00P
Walter’s on Washington Houston, Texas
Feb 23 2007 8:00P
The Parish Austin, Texas
Feb 24 2007 8:00P
The Granada Theatre Dallas, Texas
Feb 28 2007 8:00P
The Rhythm Room Phoenix, Arizona
Mar 1 2007 8:00P
The Casbah San Diego, California
Mar 3 2007 8:00P
The Troubadour Los Angeles, California
Mar 4 2007 8:00P
Bottom of the Hill San Fransisco, California
Mar 6 2007 8:00P
Doug Fir Portland, Oregon
Mar 7 2007 8:00P
The Crocodile Cafe Seattle, Washington
Mar 9 2007 8:00P
Club Sound Salt Lake City, Utah
Mar 10 2007 8:00P
High Dive Denver, Colorado
Apr 8 2007 8:00P
Academy 2 Liverpool
Apr 9 2007 8:00P
Oran Mor Glasgow
Apr 10 2007 8:00P
Plug Sheffield
Apr 11 2007 8:00P
Shepherd’s Bush Empire London
Apr 12 2007 8:00P
Concorde 2 Brighton
Apr 13 2007 8:00P
Zodiac Oxford
Apr 14 2007 8:00P
Motel Mazaique Rotterdam
Apr 16 2007 8:00P
Le Ninkasi Lyon
Apr 17 2007 8:00P
Abart Zurich
Apr 18 2007 8:00P
Rainbow Milan
Apr 19 2007 8:00P
Cooperative Clermont Ferrand
Apr 20 2007 8:00P
Trabendo Paris
Apr 21 2007 8:00P
Botanique Brussels
Apr 23 2007 8:00P
KB Malmo
Apr 24 2007 8:00P
Pusterviksbaren Gothenburg
Apr 25 2007 8:00P
Folken Stavenger
Apr 26 2007 8:00P
Hulen Bergen
Apr 27 2007 8:00P
John Dee Oslo
Apr 28 2007 8:00P
Voxhall Aarhus
February 21st, 2007 at 9:38 am
Andrei Rublev is terrific. big points to them! i listen to some of occupanther the other night. it was decent but i wasn’t really focused on it.
February 21st, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Yeah…I think maybe it is a real grower…