The Walkmen are returning to the city they grew up in for a homecoming show that’s sure to light up 9:30 Club come Friday night. Expect songs from their latest release, Heaven, the new album from earlier this year that shows off a new level of musical maturity.
It’s becoming a point of embarrassment that I make a connection to The OC with every group I write about, and true to form, my first exposure to The Walkmen was a cameo performance of “Little House of Savages” on that titular teen drivel-drama.
It’s fitting, since The Walkmen are channeling Bob Dylan all over this new album, if Dylan had spent a lot more time on the West Coast and never went on to imbibe electronic instrumentation. Make no mistake, however—sunny waning melodies aside, The Walkmen get their edge from the East Coast, representing Philly and New York. They show a preference for vintage folk instrumentation, never more so than on this, their latest work.
The new album is pure and organic; it plays like a private show in a cave or around a campfire. The vocals are slow and savory, paced in a way that, the more I listen, sounds like classic Dylan.
Every once in a while you see a live show that makes you wonder if it’s possible to reproduce the kind of connection with an audience that you saw on stage, city to city, night after night, or if maybe what you just saw was something special. This is sure to be one of those shows that will have everyone wondering on the way out of 9:30 in post-show afterglow if it stood out to the group on stage as much as it did to the audience, and if you’d like to be there, here’s your chance.
To win a pair of tickets to the show, name a modern artist that channels a musician who came before them and the retro artist inspiration whom you hear in their sound.
Mine’s the Denmark pop trio Private, who channel pure ’80s era James Brown.
The winner will be chosen at noon on Wednesday, October 3rd! Tickets are close to selling out, so grab yours very soon.
