Regardless of my literary indifference, it’s been a quality summer for the Pittsburgh music masses, which was thriving even before the peak in concert activity that hit in late July/early August.  So this will be a summary of the first 3 shows I saw this summer in a some what spaced out order. Reviews and tracks after the jump.

White Rabbits, June 6, Brillobox

It was a strange night, A number of things aligned : game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final, White Rabbits playing the Brillobox, getting stuck working a dreaded Saturday night shift at the restaurant I loathed, and the reluctance of my friends to join me at the show.  I ended up ducking out of work around a quarter to nine, changing in the car, and hauling ass down towards the depths of Lawrenceville on what was an almost deserted route 19, as Mike Lange and Two Niner described the hockey disaster in vivid detail.

Long story short (I’ll omit details about the hockey game), White Rabbits came out to a slightly stunned crowd and apologized briefly for the loss.  What they unleashed afterward was simply one of the tightest, best sounding concerts I had been to in quite some time.  The complex percussion that drives so many of White Rabbits’ best tracks was front and center with group’s two drummers remaining almost completely in sync.  By the time “Percussion Gun” closed the set (the blistering lead track off the band’s excellent second album It’s Frightening) it was a done deal (whatever the fuck that means).  I could wax poetic about this show  for hours so I’ll refrain.  The fact is, next time these guys are in town, drop whatever you’re doing and get there dammit.

White Rabbits – Percussion Gun

The Black Keys, Point State Park, June 1

Before I say anything, the crowd was a work of art.  The age spectrum must have been at least 40 years and I mean that in the best possible way.  The Black Keys, more than any other garage/blues rock revivalists, exude a sound that’s retro classic, strutting with a swagger that will never go out of style.  If any band is apt to fill out a free concert at the Pittsburgh Arts Festival it’s these guys. The Black Keys connect with multiple generations and make it look easy.

Patrick Carney and a clean shaven Dan Auerbach ripped through highlights of their entire catalog (including my favorite barn burner “10am Automatic”) as well as the bulk of their extremely underrated 2008 LP Attack and Release. The burning image of that performance was Carney nearly obliterating his hi-hats with a tambourine, something I can honestly say I had never witnessed before. It was a muscular show, full of sweat and soul, two things that will never go out of style.

The Black Keys – I’ll Be Your Man

Yeasayer w/Ponytail, Ball of Flame Shoot Fire, July 21st, Mr. Smalls

So yes, I have heard many times before from many people about the severe ills that plague the sound systems at Mr. Small’s.  I almost always shrugged them off because I could not recall a single show that I hadn’t enjoyed thoroughly out in Milvale (save the moment this summer when Crocodiles missed their opening spot for Tally Hall).  But the honest fact of it this time around was that Ball of Flame’s set got butchered due to shoddy sound.  Background hissing, distorted vocals, and feedback in general (all of which was not planned) crippled the band’s complex arrangements.  It was especially devastating because the bulk of material at BOFSF’s show was new, and I could barely get a solid read on what most of the songs were about.

Interestingly enough, by the time Yeasayer rolled around, the sound issues were corrected and the pack crowd was treated to a synth heavy set split between tracks off their only full length album All Hour Cymbals and new songs from their next project.  Tracks like “Sunrise” and “2080″ were performed with vibrant new interpretations, with the group mostly shunning their usual world music vibe for heavy electronics, bass and shimmering guitar.  It was a compelling experience to realize this concert was a singular creation in and of it self, an idea the band has championed in many interviews.  I’ll be the first to admit that I usually wait to hear carbon copies of the songs I love at concerts, easily forgetting the wonders of improvisation or spontaneity that makes the best live shows so spectacular.  I am glad Yeasayer pointed the insignificance of my ignorance so beautifully.

Yeasayer – Sunrise

Yeasayer – 2080

pictures courtesy of Hugh Shows Redux

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Ball of Flame Shoots Fire's Jess Tambelini and Peter Henry

Kind of an interesting pair, I’ll admit.  While Luke Temple’s pseudonymical, lo-fi indie folk project, Here We Go Magic, presents quite a counterpoint to the bombastic sprawl of Ball of Flame Shoot Fire’s latest opus, Jokeland, the convergance of the groups’ styles is definitely a welcome experiment.  I’m already imagining the benefits of charged up Lawrenceville crowd, still beaming from the operatic grandeur of Ball of Flame in full swing, treated to a smoldering set by Temple and Co., which will probably feel more like a somber bedroom recording session than a full on rock show (that’s a compliment). As a fairly consistent showgoer, I can’t imagine a better combination:  grand, epic sweep meets intimate, fragile beauty.

Luckily, Ball of Flame have gotten back into the thick of the Pittsburgh scene with more than a few shows around the area, and with the band finally all together for the first time in months, expect no time to be wasted. With a couple choice opening slots (Wednesday’s show, and the Yeasayer bill with Ponytail at Mr. Small’s later this summer) the band gets a chance to flex Jokeland, an album almost screaming for a victory lap around town after hibernating in iTunes libraries since the CD release show back in January.

BOFSF with Here We Go Magic on Wednesday at the Brillobox along with Camera Obscura at Mr. Smalls tonight  makes these few days leading up to the fourth of July weekend all the more explosive. “Any thing is possssible.”

Thanks to HughshowsRedux for the quality picture.

Here We Go Magic – Tunnelvision

Ball of Flame Shoot Fire – Wishthroat

Ball of Flame Shoot Fire, luckily, avoid any casual  labeling with a dynamic, complicated and sprawling sound that is exceedingly difficult, meant fully as a compliment, to nail down as a this or a that. On their debut EP Grumpy Little Bird,  BOFSF exhibited a knack for writing songs that easily oscillated between wittily thoughtful, competent, piano-pop and  apocalyptic anthems complete with absurdist imagery, bouncing carnival rhythms and desperate vocals.  But while that EP was more a collection of demos and aborted styles than a confident artistic statement, their first full-length album, Jokeland (pronounced like Oakland), coalesces the most interesting parts of Grumpy Little Bird into an intricately beautiful and demanding symbiosis of sound.

A greater sense of songwriting cohesion on Jokeland allows BOFSF to prominently display such well directed influences as Animal Collective, Man Man and Harry Nilsson.  These influences, however, are merely a context for the world which Ball of Flame have created, a primer to help navigate the many twists and turns of  an album that is practically busting at the seams with ideas and experimentation.  But of course the most rewarding experience of Jokeland happens without a map, allowing the urgently compelling, novel-dense lyrics to push the listener through a vast terrain of sonic shifts in harmony, tone, instrumentation, and electronic manipulation.

“DaVinci Toad” boldly opens with album, slapping the listener in the face with a fairly garish freak out in its opening seconds, complete with twisting guitars and splashing drums.  That chaos, like so many other controlled out bursts on this album, quickly snaps into a sudden, melodic throb with pianist Winston Cook-Wilson announcing  “…the day is upon us.”  The opening track offers a fairly accurate key to understand the rest of Jokeland, as most songs contain six or more distinct sections, rarely allowing a dependable chorus or bridge to rear its steady head.

“Mugs” subtly reveals its breakneck pace with interlocking guitar, drum and piano parts keeping the tempo deceptively agile as it races through one of BOFSF’s most fully realized creations to date.  The song, again, like so many others, goes through a number of transformations before overlapping a stomping piano build-up, circling carnival harmonies and cascading guitars into a brain melting coda. “Doops” sounds as if its entirety was recorded with the band being doused repeatedly by buckets of water.  The guitar line wavers like refracted light on a pool’s surface as the entire mood is drenched in a sandy synth, capable of slamming through the watery slog for a startling command of presence.  I’d say this track provides the most overt reference to Animal Collective, but where Panda Bear and company may linger too long on a rhythm or idea, BOFSF demand attention, challenging the listener to keep up with the sheer compositional velocity.

“Patience,” which appeared on the Key Party compilation last summer, is arguably Ball of Flame’s prettiest song to date, with lyrics detailing  an Alice in Wonderland-type fantasy, sung with knowing caution by Wilson to the “pretty little gypsy” with a brown frock on.  Between its enchanting imagery, gorgeous vocal harmonies, and towering instrumentation, this could be the closest BOFSF get to an anthem.  “Patience” appears as the twelfth track and manages to drape the previous eleven songs in a rosy haze of pleasant melancholy, allowing the elaborate patterns of the album to emerge slowly and without force.

Ball of Flame Shoot Fire have confidently marked their place in the Pittsburgh music scene, raising the bar for musicianship and creativity.  It’s unfortunate that half the band members attend different colleges and can’t play as many shows locally as one would like, but hopefully that leaves Pittsburgh for an even greater desire to see these guys in concert.  I can’t start to imagine what their new material might sound like, considering I am still chewing over all of the wonderful things that happened on Jokeland.  However, I will attest that Ball of Flame are one of the most challenging, rewarding, and important bands to arrive in the Pittsburgh scene, a group that should command attention by more than a few people craving music that is this heavy with ideas.

Ball of Flame Shoot Fire – Mugs

Ball of Flame Shoot Fire – Patience