Mutemath, As Tall As Lions
Palladium Ballroom
October 29, 2009
Better than: Watching Spinal Tap's Experimental Jazz Odyssey... well, almost better.
It was clear that when Mutemath started its set that it would be playing new songs--lots of 'em. And it was clear that the band was going to have to work hard to win over a capacity crowd that was mostly excited to hear its older stuff.
To their credit, the band members used every trick in the book--from the sing-along of "Noticed" and instrument swapping to cool lights and a backdrop fashioned to look like an old amphitheater.
But, in the end, giving the audience what it wanted was what paid off.
As such, the show started with an old ritual: Drummer Darren King marched out
and secured a set of '90s-era headphones to his head with a roll
of duct tape. It was a good move on his part--the next 90 minutes would
involve his twisting, jumping and shaking.
Next, the band launched into "The Nerve," the first song on its new album,
Armistice, which, like most of the new record, is heavy on electronics,
big hooks, and bombast. The show was off to a decent start, though, as
the band buzz-sawed through a handful of new songs. But it wasn't until
they started into "Chaos" that the crowd finally began to respond.
The music wasn't the only thing on display, though. There was an
arsenal of lights big enough to divert attention away from even the
most mundane new song. A few songs down the set-list featured King on a
high-rise with his back to the audience, playing a drumset made of
glowing orbs on the back wall. Interesting touches like this kept the
high-energy show moving along. The rest of the show featured super-fast
drumbeats, a keytar, impeccable DJ Shadow-like grooves, and singer Paul
Meany's vocals, which was so much like Sting's you'd wonder if they were
related.
The argument of "Style versus Substance" comes to mind, but on a
mellowed-out sing-along like "You Are Mine," Mutemath proved to be more
than just a flashy light show and acrobatics. It was on this song that
the real connection with the audience was made. The band held the crowd in
the palm of its hands for the remainder of the show.
The encore ended
with crowd favorite, "Reset," a high-energy musical landscape, which
allowed them to do all the crazy stuff the audience had been wanting
the whole night. Bassist Roy Mitchell Cardenas jumped behind the
drumset as Darren King surfed his bass drum over the audience,
Monotonix style. Thankfully, he stopped short of any of its more
infamous stunts, and no microphones were harmed.
Indeed, on Thursday night, Mutemath proved that hard work on stage pays off. The
audience was buzzing all the way to the exits. If only their records
were as effective as their live show.
In contrast to Mutemath's controlled, tenacious performance was opener,
As Tall As Lions. At the beginning of its set, the band announced that its singer was out due to illness, so it did what every band would
do in that situation: Experimental Jazz Odyssey. Only, it was far worse
than the one in Spinal Tap.
Awkward transitions, wrong notes, and
boring riffs amounted to one of the worst, most self-indulgent jam
sessions I've ever seen.
That band could take a lesson from Mutemath, who
cut off even the coolest jam at the four-minute mark.
Critic's notbook
Personal Bias:
I was skeptical of Mutemath going into this show. I've
seen the band well over 10 times, but I wasn't sure if its new record
would make the same impact as its old stuff. I was right--but they
still put on an incredible show.
By The Way: Mutemath started as a Christian band whose main selling
point was that it were the Christian 311. Thank God the band's stop aiming for that.
Random Note: Everywhere I went, I was standing between somebody's dad
and somebody's youth pastor. The Southern Comfort waitress at the venue had her work
cut out for her last night...
