Noah and the Whale @ HOB Anaheim (11.23.11)

The Noah and the Whale show at the HOB Anaheim was packed! The place was bursting at the seams for a little British band I was starting to wonder if anyone else in SoCal had heard of.

Overall a decent show. Finally got to see the band that introduced me to a whole crew of great British musicians. I will make a bit of a confession though. I really dug the sound of their first album more so than the others. Mainly its instrumentation. Now that's not to say I like the layered Sgt Peppers sound on some of their songs, more I just dig the acoustic blended sound. This was not the sound they had this evening however, opting to be a bit more electric.

They hit the songs I was expecting, although I was kinda supprised they played 5 Years Time given the prominence of Laura Marling on it. Met up with an old friend from college at the show and we both agreed that there was some strange Springsteen connection in the bands sound that evening.

I was glad to see they did an upbeat show. With a pause in the middle for some "romantic time" music, of course. As always, I worry about mellow bands when they're live. These guys were full of energy and Charlie Fink was dancing around the stage "like Mick Jagger" as a fellow concert goer put it.

I have already gone on ad nauseum about Noah and the Whale, so I will keep all my ramblings about the band, who's not in it any more, and all that to a minimum. Good show... Good show...

Noah and the Whale

Got Noah and the Whale's first album recently. This band appears to be evolving into another Death Cab knockoff, so I carefully selected "Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down" as my starting sample point.

This is one of the better structured albums I have run into in a while. Ebbs and flows quite nicely. Not perfect (gets a bit squirrely at the end), but still pretty good. As far as I am concerned, the best album rather than collection of song's is Badly Drawn Boy's - Hour of Bewilderbeast.

The first few tracks are so upbeat they just make you happy to be alive. Don't get me wrong, the subject matter might not be the happiest, but sometimes its just a feel... The video for Shape of My Heart says it all:



This track has heavy Beatles circa Sgt Pepper's overtones but keeps enough of a respectful distance to call it their own. Two Atoms in a Molecule reminds me (strangely) of Neutral Milk Hotel's "King of Carrot Flowers pt 1," but they are nothing alike. I also dig "Rocks and Daggers" for its country shuffle beats and backing vocals.

Speaking of which, I absolutely love Laura Marling's voice. She should be more prominently used or do her own stuff... Oh wait... She does. Disappointingly though, her most recent album sounds like Mumford and Sons (she was apparently dating the singer from this band for a while). Don't get me wrong, Mumford is a band I like, I just liked them better when they were Mumford and Sons. Give her time, she's young... eventually she'll find her own sound... but I digress...

The track on this album that really hit it for them is 5 years time. It's a pretty catchy poppy track so I can see why it got them noticed. Fun Wes Anderson style vid too... Although if you listen to the words, its almost sugary enough to give a man diabetes.

If I were looking for something new I would definately pick up this album.