When photographer Sarah Gormley and I arrived at the Red Palace last Sunday, the steady rain and August humidity made for an unusually quiet H Street scene, as if we were actually at a deserted movie set that had been abandoned during the recession. We were dismayed to have missed openers The Alternate Routes and Paul Dempsey due to prior commitments, but were lucky enough to arrive at the Red Palace just before indie rockers Scattered Trees took the stage.
The red-tinged room was half-filled with cheerful and earnest fans despite the weather, and the Chicago quintet returned the sentiment. After breaking a string during the very first song, front man Nate Eiesland quipped that he had done it on purpose so that he could borrow Eric’s (from The Alternate Routes) “really sexy guitar” (’twas indeed) and then told a couple of bad jokes to amuse us while he tuned.
While prepping for this show, I revisited the video for “Four Days Straight” on YouTube, and skimmed through the comments. I thought one suggestion that the band “should stick to videos of their live gigs” was particularly prickish, but now… I’ve got to agree.
This band is so much better live than a recording can possibly convey.
First of all, they all harmonize more than you would think, with Eisland’s wife Alissa, guitarist Jason Harper (we recently went on a First Date with him), and bassist Ryne Estwing all lending vocals to Eisland’s lead. While their recent release Sympathy is a contemplative, thoughtful album, the live versions of the songs, especially the second song in their set, “A Conversation About Death on New Years Eve,” rock much, much harder in person, with much heavier percussion from Jason’s brother Baron Harper on drums and plaintive basslines from Estwing. There were a few imperfections, some off-key notes, but that just made it all the more heartfelt.
Minor complaint: The set list. I had no idea what the first song was. I could definitely be wrong, but I didn’t recognize it from Sympathy, and I don’t know much of their earlier work, two albums released in 2006 and 2007 respectively, before they signed with Roll Call Records. Why not start with “A Convo About Death” or even “Love and Leave,” their most recognizable song, which went viral last spring with a brilliant Star Wars-themed video, directed by Jason Harper himself. When they did play “Love and Leave,” the song filled the room, perfectly angsty and befitting the summer rainstorm.
Maybe it was the feel-good indie, unpretentious and unapologetically sincere, maybe it was the weather, maybe it was the couple kissing in the corner in deep blush-pink shadows, but I felt like I was an extra in a low-budget romcom. I kept waiting for a boy and a girl to see each other across the room, exchange surreptitious glances, and then shyly meet, whether by will or by luck. I thought to my cynical self, I need bourbon for this, and I got some during “I Swear to God,” my least favorite song in their nine song set. I think that the audience agreed with me.
While they had formed a semi-circle around the stage, too bashful to crowd up front, the crowd had nonetheless been swaying all night, and I saw a few others besides me mouthing the lyrics now and then. The prior song, “Five Minutes,” would have been the perfect soundtrack to our boy-meets-girl chance encounter, set in slow-mo, as Eisland croons
I’m right here
Five minutes at a time, I go
I can’t breathe, I’m in too deep
So take me up to the surface
Take me up to the surface
I won’t dream for fear of sleep
Take me up to the surface
Take me up to the surface
“I Swear to God,” a song Eisland said was born from his being raised in the religious tradition, is about how “not everything we are told as a child is true.” While well-meaning, it felt a bit out of place in our makeshift romcom, especially with some heavy bass riffs from Estwing, which I otherwise highly enjoyed the rest of the night, and the audience stood there confused. (During “Five Minutes,” Estwing had switched to tambo and hitting the bass drum with a soft mallet in lieu of any bass, and this also made the song indulgently soft and accessible.) In my head, the director screams, “We don’t have songs about religion play after the young lovers meet in this scene!”
They redeemed themselves with “On Your Side” and “Bury the Floors” and closed with the title track (and newest video) “Sympathy,” all played with the enthusiasm of good friends jamming in someone’s basement rather than on stage. I had asked Eisland in an interview earlier this year if working with family makes things easier, and he answered,
Easier in some ways and more difficult in others, but I would say, overall, much more enjoyable… We know how each person’s strengths can build on the other person’s strengths, and I think we’ve focused on that, and it’s served us well.
This is evident, with a married couple, two brothers, and a close friend sharing the stage, and the genuine trust and intuition that they share is practically palpable.
I would have liked to have seen them close with the aforementioned “Four Days Straight,” instead played right before “Five Minutes.” It sounds so much better live (like all of their songs) than in the video, it’s addictively danceable, and it would have been the perfect song during the closing scene to our little imaginary romance. “Oh no, we’ve both got broken hearts/ Oh no, yours just took you away/ Oh no, mine is keeping me here/ Who knows how long I can stay.”
Kiss. End scene.
(My song suggestion for the movie credits/encore if there had been one: their cover of Lennon’s “Instant Karma,” released as the B-side on the “Four Days Straight” single, and not played that night.)
Photo Credit: Sarah Gormley
