Midlake
I was looking forward to this show for quite sometime. Midlake’s The Trials of Van Occupanther is the perfect hazy day soundtrack for me and when this year’s The Courage Of Others came out, that album quickly became one of my favorites of the year. By pledging allegiance to old-time country music, 1960s The Band-like harmonies, and exuberant acoustic clatter, Midlake create hushed, dreamy and mysteriously beautiful music.
Matthew and the Arrogant Sea
Opening was the fello Denton, Texas crew, Matthew and the Arrogant Sea. The combination of the hushed, indie balladry with the spacious guitar rock made these guys a welcome addition to the short line-up. Mixing boogie-soaked country and the wail of Matthew’s echoing falsetto may have gained a few skeptical audience members.
Midlake
Ethereal beardy-music has a ready-made audience ready to declare it’s the best thing since My Morning Jacket, and as a result it’s suffering from oversubscription. Midlake are a cut above, but lack the psych-pop complexity of, say, Fleet Foxes.
Midlake
Despite darker notes like the eerie Rulers Ruling All Things, whose sweet melody couches strange, oblique images of snow and destruction, mainly they’re as unshowy, down-home and honest as their plaid shirts.
Midlake
Existing in a vague timeless space somewhere between the early-’70s and a folky, pre-industrial world of Crosby, Stills & Nash harmonies, streams and squirrels, they’re almost too gorgeous, neatly sidestepping the mess of modernity.
Midlake
Of course, you’d only have such doubts hours later. As you stand, rapt, bathed in the chiming acoustic guitar and flute of Van Occupanther or thrilling to Tim Smith’s haunting whisper on Acts of Man, your head will be full of nothing but the desire for it not to stop.
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[mp3] Midlake – Acts of Man from The Courage Of Others (2010)
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[mp3] Matthew and the Arrogant Sea – You Still Love Me Blondie from Family Family Family Meets The Magic Christian (2008)