They make fun with their repetitive, catchy lines:
After seeing them the first time, I ran out and grabbed their album. In truth, in the two months of owning it, I haven't gotten around to actually listen to it. I'm not sure if I'd listen to Titus outside of the live concert setting. Their music is fun and careless, but I just don't think I could connect with it outside of a live gig.
Okkervil River are a self-assured band with all the poise and confidence in the world. I was absolutely floored by the bands warmth this tour, seeing them is a must. If you ever get the opportunity, please don't pass it up.
They fused together a good mix of old and new, a surprise that made the show exciting and invigorating. The only album they really neglected (beyond the older couple) was The Stand-Ins and I'm perfectly fine with that. The only tune I'd have liked to have heard was "All The Latest Toughs," as they played it before.
I think the main reason I really like Okkervil River is for their sophistication and smooth quality, in terms of sound and lyrics. Will Scheff is an absolutely dapper guy, while his supporting band is comprised of a really talented female guitarist that has a remarkable resemblance to Miranda July. Furthermore, he's got an eclectic support behind him of men around his age of all sorts of looks. So suffice to say, Okkervil is most certainly not a band you go out to gawk at, but rather bask in their musical brilliance.
This band has definitely earned the title of literary rockers which I accredited to Scheff's articulate lyrics.
Half way through the show the band walked off the stage leaving Scheff on his lonesome. He played a very stripped version of "A Stone," as he did the last show. I can't say I wasn't expecting it, but with every performance, I find myself surprised that this song would be played. Don't get me wrong, it is a household favourite, but it's slow and intimate. I guess that's maybe Will Scheff's aim when playing it. At the Toronto show, I felt he shied away from the microphone for the first verse and then really attacked it come the next verse, really working the dynamics. The beauty of "A Stone" is in the eloquent and smooth transition between words that commit to the memory almost effortlessly.
You can actually hear people having musical orgasms in this video taken a month or so prior to the show I just saw. This performance easily leaves people weak in the knees:
And I think that I know the bitter dismay of a lover who brought
fresh bouquets every day
when she turned him away
to remember some knave
who once gave
just one rose, one day, years ago.
This show also had a fabulous momentum to it, they sewed together the old with the new so seamlessly. The last bit of the set you could tell was a giver for the crowd, they played a string of songs that immediately pleased everyone:
"For Real"
"Our Life Is Not A Movie, Or is It?"
"Lost Coastlines"
"Westfall"
"Unless It Kicks"
For the last week or so I have tried very hard to encourage people to make it to this show. For every mix of songs I would write, the closing bit of their set made it. I couldn't think of a better booming ending.
There's really nothing like hearing "Westfall" live with the mesmerising chant of "Evil Don't Look Like Anything." It's pretty outstanding to think that such a stage closer like "Westfall" was off of Okkervil's first full-length.
Evil don't look like anything
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