A fellow Bulletin-ite, Scott Johnson, shot some video of Vetiver’s show Friday night at Silver Moon Brewing & Taproom in Bend. Here’s the band doing “Rolling Sea,” and my mini-review is after the clip:
Vetiver – Rolling Sea from Scott Johnson on Vimeo.
In last week’s article on Vetiver in GO! Magazine, I called the band’s “Tight Knit” album “one of the best albums of 2009 so far.” And I still think that’s true, but it might be a tad misleading. Because while I do think “Tight Knit” is very good, I don’t know that it has the kind of oomph I need from a record, whether it’s loud and rocking or quiet and folky, or somewhere in between. “Tight Knit” is a solid album that shows off a fine songwriter (Andy Cabic) and his very skilled band. It is not, however, a swift punch to the gut, or a slow-burning fire under your butt. The most visceral reaction I can imagine to the record is to close your eyes and smile and nod along.
Vetiver’s live show is the same way. San Francisco-based Cabic and his backing quartet sounded great Friday night in a stuffy Silver Moon. They played and sang their songs well, and the crowd — a good-sized crowd, I thought, though it was definitely not full — seemed appreciative. Vetiver effortlessly (and I use that word with purpose) wandered from folksy pop to blues jams to honky tonk, rarely straying far from a fairly languid pace. Even rarer was a change in expression on any of the musicians’ faces. Yeah, they looked a little bored, a little sleepy. But I think my assumption that they were just deep into the music is a safe one. I hope it is.
The band picked songs from each of its four records; highlights, in my mind, were the labyrinthine “Luna Sea,” the tight, 1960s-ish bop of “More of This,” and the gorgeous “Maureen,” featuring the clearest, most perfect harmonies of the night. Occasionally, they’d channel the Grateful Dead and linger on a jam for just a bit too long. Vetiver closed (save a one-song encore I don’t remember) with a cover of The Everly Brothers’ “Hey Doll Baby,” which sounded about how you’d expect: classic pop-rockabilly shuffle filtered through a sun-baked, summer-of-love P.O.V. It didn’t rock, exactly, but it was probably the most upbeat number of the night.
I only wish we’d seen that level of energy just a few more times, but it’s clear Cabic is very happy and very comfortable doing the easygoing, country/soft-rock thing. And no matter what you thought of Vetiver’s spunk, it’s also clear they’re very good at what they do.
Tags: Vetiver
I have a feeling that Vetiver was trying desperately TO get lost in their music… but the conditions inside Silvermoon were way worse than ‘stuffy’… it was practically miserable. The only three things that kept me inside listening were 1. The ocassional pass by a fan 2. The self-help H2O & 3. Vetiver. It’s hard to expect magic from a band in all venues under any conditions. I’d be interested to see if the energy expelled by the group during the final two songs of the night is a little more indicitive of what a Vetiver show might include if given inside a venue as comfortable as a pair of 1988 Hush Puppies. (oh… AND without a crazy Source photographer grappling with shot after shot nearly directly in the faces of the performers for nearly the entire set).