Pedro The Lion, Tilly and The Wall & Western States
The Bean Scene
Monday, August 9th
The Bean Scene certainly lived up to the latter part of it’s name at last Monday’s
Pedro the Lion show, bringing out both scene kids and scene adults in equal numbers to hear the pleasant monotone of David Bazan, aka Pedro the Lion.
However, punctuality was not rewarded, as those who showed up in time to catch the opening act, Western States, were greeted with unenthused and tepid brand of rock music. However, the atmosphere remained charged with a coffee and alcohol driven pleasantness that was a perfect setting for the next act,
Tilly and the Wall. As the first band signed to fellow Nebraskan and contemporary indie rock heartthrob Conor Oberst’s new label Tilly and the Wall had the obligatory buzz preceeding them. And for good reason: eschewing a drummer for a tap dancer, and splitting vocal duties between two strong voiced women and one nasal guy, Tilly and the Wall wowed most if not all of those in attendance. Musically spare—with just tap shoes, acoustic guitar and a little keyboards—the band’s songs were almost Psalmic vocal celebrations with unison female vocals only occasionally breaking into harmony and an intrepid songcraft that was a refreshing change from the stale format followed by most of their indie rock brethren.
However, there is certainly still something to be said for consistency. In his nine years as Pedro the Lion, David Bazan has certainly been just that: consistently penning lyrically poignant and melodically concise songs, consistently putting out damn good albums like his latest, Achilles Heel, and consistently hitting the road to ply his vaguely theological brand of shoegaze rock to the masses. Pedro the Lion show’s are also studies in economy: tearing through song after song — mixing new cuts from Achilles Heel, with older crowd favorties like “Big Trucks” and “Bad Diary Days,”—the band would occasionally pause to field questions from the crowd, another Pedro tradition. The questions were, for the most part, what you would expect: “What does Pedro the Lion mean?” “Can I request a song?” But one older member of the crowd, obviously new to the world of semi-emo, actually asked Bazan “Could you smile a little more when you play?” drawing gasps from the crowd. Bazan, however, seemed neither rattled nor amused. “I try not to think about those kind of involuntary reactions,” he answered before ripping into another dozen songs about God, cheating on your wife, kids, and all the other horribly beautiful things in life. And though he wasn’t smiling, the catharsis Bazan seems to find in his often brutally honest, seemingly autobiographical songs was certainly palpable.
Though those looking for pearly whites may have been disappointed, fans of exceptionally decent indie rock, both tried and true guitar rock and whimsical, tap-dance Nebraska rock, were fulfilled.
