couldn't call it unexpected no.2

i unexpectedly had a second chance to hear saints and lovers, who i'd previously seen at gothamist's moveable hype 1.0. in fact, that was one of my first posts. i was already at pianos upstairs, and jasper mentioned they were playing downstairs soon.

for some reason, the vocals sounded like there was a wet sock on the mic. that's a real shame, because the singer has a really good voice, which somehow shone through the mud. i also liked the guitar-as-bass trick he pulled off with effect pedals. he did actually play bass for the first few songs, most effectively on a vaguely new order-ish number just before he switched to guitar.

while their stadium-sized guitar sound seems a bit out of place in a venue the size of pianos, and is perhaps overly reminiscent of the edge in spots, the band is very good. their songs have a sad-but-uplifting quality that i tend to like.

the closing song was worth the price of admission alone. the guitarist pulled a beautifully ghostly sound out of his gear completely unlike anything else in the set. the singer countered with a dry guitar rhythm until kicking in the big distortion at the climactic moment, lifting his voice to a dramatic wail while the drummer pounded it home. if their other music gets as good as this song, i expect great things from this band.


the title of this post comes from a song by elvis costello.