The Walkmen

Matt Kassel's blog (coldjazz.blogspot.com) has got me thinking that I should return my own blog, which has been pulled in more directions than a compass at a magnet factory over the years, to music writing. I've also just been to Osheaga and I'd like to have my impressions recorded somewhere so I can look over them in a few years after I have forgotten them.

Though the Walkmen came on at one in the afternoon, there was no way I was going to miss them. I remember hearing "The Rat" on a Chocolate Skateboards video several years ago, and I got their singles soon after. Maybe they're tired of that song by now, or maybe they opened with it, but what I heard came mostly from their latest album and the one due out in September. They were surprisingly clean cut, which mirrored the faithful renditions of the album versions with which they bombasted the gathering crowd.

Though Paul Maroon's guitars were drenched in all the reverb his overdriven Fender Twin could muster, the Walkmen's sound worked because their instruments, refreshingly effect-free, sounded good on their own. The same held true for Hamilton Leithauser's vocals, which managed to be both unaffected and affecting, on-key and off-kilter. They held together like only a guitar, bass, B3, and drumkit can: a colour-by-numbers rock band, but an earnest and hardworking one.

No one worked harder than Matt Barrick, the drummer, whose jockey-like stature was only equalled by his jockey-like ability to drive the group forward. He played the drums right-handed, but with his right hand crossed under his left, an unusual playing style which probably came from his tendency to hit the highest toms with it instead of the snare during most of his beats.

That was the most peculiar thing I could discern in the whole of their set. The Walkmen are not a surprising band, but they have unusually good material and a phenomenal sound which speaks to very sober equipment choices and a coherent vision of their sound. The equally sober 1 p.m. crowd seemed to enjoy it as much as I did. It makes me wonder what it'd be like to see them play a late-night set, when all the lights and smoke trained on them would actually be visible. They would probably play "The Rat" then. And it would be raucous.