photo credit: sunbear/weworemasks

The Walkmen have had a curious following to say the least. The raucously bittersweet New York band have flirted with mainstream indie success but always come up short to their contemporaries like The Strokes or even Arcade Fire, yet have remained your favorite bands’ favorite band – The Walkmen, with their shimmering Velvet Underground meets organic urban grit sound have always been the music aficionado’s kind of band; So underappreciated in its time that they actually seem to enjoy the bit of esoteric value they’ve acquired.

Thursday’s show at Houston’s formerly ramshackle turned posh and plush revamp venue Fitzgerald’s saw absolutely no lack of devotion from this very fan base, who flocked in droves to support the band on a tour cycle for their much heralded sixth album Lisbon.

hit the jump for the review

– sunbear

So packed was Fitzgerald’s for The Walkmen that the only view that made itself available to me was a pocketed perch two steps up a flight of stairs so far in the back of the room that I was sidled up near the line for the ladies room. There was hardly any room to breathe, let alone see the actual band themselves from behind the hundreds of backs of people’s heads. And what did I expect from the band that three years earlier decimated the smokey 300-capacity venue Walter’s on Washington? The band had only gotten bigger since then, riding the success of their celebrated albums and ferocious live shows.

photo credit: sunbear/weworemasks

Opening with the hazy gallop of Lisbon track “Blue as Your Blood,” The Walkmen took the stage in a slow but dapper burn. Lead singer Hamilton Leithauser, all spruced up in a pale grey suit, was a hulk of a figure, all 7 feet of brooding presence. I don’t care from what angle you see the guy, even from a balcony Leithauser is one tall dude. Gripping the mic with his iconic vice-grip flex, Leithauser was booming and bellowing every line as it were his last, veins in his neck erupting forth. By the time the second song rolled around, the yearningly jubilant “In the New Year” from the band’s romantically intimate You & Me, I wondered was in awe at how much steam in took to power this guy’s vocal cords, if he had any left at all.

The majority of the night’s set favored Lisbon, the brashness of “Victory” cooled off by the chill croon of “While I Shovel the Snow,” but much of the band’s back catalog was well, if not sparsely represented. “Little House of Savages” saw some face-time midway through the set, as well as the encored one-two punch of “The Rat” and “We’ve Been Had,” both classics igniting the entirety of the venue with a visceral second wind. In fact, if you could see around Leithauser’s frame, drummer Matt Barrick turned in one of the most heated performances of the night, the blistering blitzkrieg of “The Rat” rattling everything within a hundred miles (see that there?) of his drumkit. By the time the band waked off the stage for a second time, Houston had been revitalized and wanted more, but all that happened was a lot of awkward standing around in false hopes of a third encore.

This particular stop in Houston might not have matched the impulsive blow-out of their visit three years ago, but with an crowd so dense, and the band in support of one of the lightest albums in their career, Houston found a new way to celebrate The Walkmen – by basking in the accomplished atmospherics of a band masterfully at work.

SETLIST:

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Blue As Your Blood
In the New Year
Angela Surf City
Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone
Victory
While I Shovel the Snow
On the Water
Little House of Savages
Canadian Girl
Summer Stage
Woe Is Me
Juveniles

encore:

I Lost You
The Rat
We’ve Been Had

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