Finally had the chance to sit down and watch the ACL from 10/31 (original airdate on PBS in Greenville, SC), thought I'd crank out a bit of a review.
M Ward - *snooze*...seriously. I actually tried to put this on, just to see a little clip, the other night. The wife immediately nipped that one, saying it was going to put her to sleep. It is a dreamy little set, but I guess that sums up my man M Ward pretty well. Things pick up a little bit, when he gets the female backing vocalists in for a few songs, but having just watched it, nothing but the instrumental noodling he does at the end sticks out as memorable.
I will say, he looks like he fell out of some old Cuban war film from the 50's, or something. Strange looking dude.
As far as Okkervil River is concerned, they are worthy of bumping this ACL from 'delete that shit fast' to 'keep forever' status. Nice little performance. It's the first time I think I've seen the band, in the flesh, and I was surprised to see a girl on guitar. Who knew? Her chops were a little lacking, but she's there more for atmospheric sound, as far as I can tell. Proves you don't have to be a technical wizard to be successful in a good band. Sheff, the frontman, is obviously the driving force behind the band, and he's a pretty electric performer, even on TeeVee.
Material-wise, they showed their most recognizable songs, as ACL always does when they trim a performance down to 30 minutes. I'd have loved to have seen these guys get a full hour. I did get a good chuckle watching the percussionist/multi-instrumental guy. Sure, guys like that play a pivotal role in the band...but you just wonder if they are getting the table scraps off the band's backstage spread, or maybe being forced to sleep with all the ugliest groupies.
The interview with Sheff at the end of the episode is worth the price of admission. He comes off pretentious and hyperbolic...almost a caricature of what you'd expect an art-rocker type would be. Paraphrase: 'If you want to be a good writer, you have to set out aiming for better than Shakespeare'. Ridiculous, but whatever he needs to light his creative fire, good for him. Sounded more like he was just trying to sound important. No self-deprecation. The percussionist was sitting beside him, nodding...the only way to elevate your level of maraca play is to set out to be better than Bez Berry!
Still rocked, though.
Grades:
M Ward - C
Okkervil River - B+
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