The War on Drugs

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I've never gotten or attempted to get a setlist, although I saw a roadie from Lykke Li's crew roll out with like ten of them and distribute them to the front row after the show on Wednesday.
 
I once tried to get a setlist at a Mission of Burma gig, but there was this tiny hipster girl right on the rail next to me who also wanted it, and I felt kind of bad. I also tried to get a setlist at an Umphrey's McGee gig, but some burnout stoner was pushing dudes out of the way for it.

Is there anything on their earlier albums like An Ocean Between The Waves?
 
After a hiatus of a few months, this (Lost In The Dream) came alive for me on a long car trek this weekend. I propped my laptop in the front seat with headphones plugged in and hit the lead to the floor as the eloquent, interweaving shimmer of guitar, drums, keyboards, some horn hidden in there too, worked their way into my brain. The themes that come in and out of focus, to very rewarding effect... and I'm talking musical themes here. Motifs or whatever you call them.

The secret of this act is that the singer isn't all that eloquent, or all that present or charismatic (and in live clips, sans studio echo, he's all but lost... geddit... in the dream that is the music). What he's singing about is relatable enough, not earthshattering but not untrue either. Being lost and at a loose end. Losing everything. Losing your sense of self. But the eloquence, that's what the music is there for. The closing minutes of first track 'Under the Pressure' are a fine example of what I'm talking about. I'd forgotten I don't hate music.

Two words as an entry point into this record: Unforgettable Fire. You thought I was going to say Bruce Springsteen or Tom Petty. But I've decided I'm not. It is not a simple 80s or 'classic rock' pastiche. There's more going on than that. It's more like, the music that someone younger who grew up on that stuff ought to be making. There's a song here that called up echoes of the piano bit from Layla, but again, not obviously. It's just stuff that's buried in the subsoil.

In the 'used to be in The War on Drugs' competition, Adam Granduciel is now coming out well ahead of Kurt Vile, for me. Imagine U2 ever allowing themselves something so expansive.
 
After a hiatus of a few months, this (Lost In The Dream) came alive for me on a long car trek this weekend. I propped my laptop in the front seat with headphones plugged in and hit the lead to the floor as the eloquent, interweaving shimmer of guitar, drums, keyboards, some horn hidden in there too, worked their way into my brain. The themes that come in and out of focus, to very rewarding effect... and I'm talking musical themes here. Motifs or whatever you call them.

The secret of this act is that the singer isn't all that eloquent, or all that present or charismatic (and in live clips, sans studio echo, he's all but lost... geddit... in the dream that is the music). What he's singing about is relatable enough, not earthshattering but not untrue either. Being lost and at a loose end. Losing everything. Losing your sense of self. But the eloquence, that's what the music is there for. The closing minutes of first track 'Under the Pressure' are a fine example of what I'm talking about. I'd forgotten I don't hate music.

Two words as an entry point into this record: Unforgettable Fire. You thought I was going to say Bruce Springsteen or Tom Petty. But I've decided I'm not. It is not a simple 80s or 'classic rock' pastiche. There's more going on than that. It's more like, the music that someone younger who grew up on that stuff ought to be making. There's a song here that called up echoes of the piano bit from Layla, but again, not obviously. It's just stuff that's buried in the subsoil.

In the 'used to be in The War on Drugs' competition, Adam Granduciel is now coming out well ahead of Kurt Vile, for me. Imagine U2 ever allowing themselves something so expansive.



Very nice synopsis!


Sent from a barge floating through the docks of Dublin
 
This is one of like three albums I own from this year that I still haven't heard. I'm sure it's awesome though, heh. Wasn't it the highest ranking 2014 release on that Pitchfork list a month back?
 
This is one of like three albums I own from this year that I still haven't heard. I'm sure it's awesome though, heh. Wasn't it the highest ranking 2014 release on that Pitchfork list a month back?

It's likely the highest ranking album in Bang and Clatter still as well. Listen to it or I will punch a walrus and tell people you did it.
 
Does it feel like a disproportionate amount of people on this board get setlists from shows they go to? Like, it seems as though every time one of you go to a show, you come home with the setlist. I'm not even surprised to hear about it anymore. And yet, there are thousands of other people at those shows. Odds dictate that we shouldn't all have our own setlists sitting at home, but I swear each and every one of you has mentioned getting a setlist at one show or another.


All that said, I don't think I have one. :lol:

I think I nabbed setlists from almost every dropkick murphys show I've ever been to, but that's because everyone piled onto the stage for the last song, and as I made my way to safety (back, and then off to the side of the stage), I'd snag the one that had presumably been taped to an amp so Matt Kelly, their drummer, could see it. No one ever seemed to go for that one, and it didn't get trampled by the mob.
 
It's likely the highest ranking album in Bang and Clatter still as well. Listen to it or I will punch a walrus and tell people you did it.

Yeah, there were a handful of LPs I purchased early in the year knowing they would be worth it based on the artist's previous work and the new cuts I had heard...haven't gotten around to it since I've kind of been neglecting my physical library in finishing up listening to a lot of the digital stuff I hadn't sifted through.
 
I think I nabbed setlists from almost every dropkick murphys show I've ever been to, but that's because everyone piled onto the stage for the last song, and as I made my way to safety (back, and then off to the side of the stage), I'd snag the one that had presumably been taped to an amp so Matt Kelly, their drummer, could see it. No one ever seemed to go for that one, and it didn't get trampled by the mob.

I love that you have a setlist battle plan.
 
:shifty:


had. very much past tense now. but there was certainly a plan. dkm is the most popular of bands whose setlists i acquired, all the other ones i had were random other bands like the ducky boys or hudson falcons or street dogs where my competition for a piece of paper was not quite so fierce (and easily accessible since small stages/no barricades).
 
After the year that they've had I was very excited to be see them live a couple of nights ago, one of three sold out shows in Melbourne (in addition to a slot at Meredith Festival).

Managed to snare a very good position with a stellar view. They blew me away. An Ocean Between the Waves was probably the night, incredible live. I also really enjoyed Buenos Aires Beach as well, it's a lot of fun.

It was a great show, Granduciel is such a talent. And he still is his own tech. Prior to the gig, there he was hovering about the stage with his unmistakable mop flapping about and his light denim jacket. I find him pretty endearing.

I must say I thought that the running order of the setlist was unimpressive. Although they did change it as the gig went on. I thought that it was stacked it too early with some of the pearlers from the recent album, which didn't help sustain the attention of many of the newer fans.

Setlist was something like this (but not 100% accurate:

In Reverse
Ocean Between the Waves
Arms Like Boulders
Under the Pressure
Baby Missiles
Disappearing
??? - cover?
Burnin'
Buenos Aires Beach
Red Eyes
Eyes to the Wind
Lost in the Dream

Come to the City
Black Water Falls
Brothers

Comin Through was on the setlist but wasn't played,


Sent from a barge floating through the docks of Dublin
 
I was a bit underwhelmed (was at Meredith). Sound wasn't that great and I think I was pretty drunk but I wasn't blown away. That said, it was still really good, and Under the Pressure was just amaaaaaazing.
 
Honestly I've blown hot and cold on the War on Drugs record and could, in theory, share some of Cobl4's reservations. In the end I blew hot. Can't quite pin down why, but yeah, there is something there I think. By which I mean an actual vision, beyond the obvious influences-on-the-sleeves.

I think for me it is that the music does do the talking, in the end, and despite an at-times almost invisible frontman/vocalist/lyricist.
 
Last night was great as far as the band goes. They were tight and they rocked. The solos were truncated a bit because traffic was so bad the show started almost an hour late, and there's a curfew at the venue (in addition to two closed freeways). The setlist was just what I wanted because Your Love is Calling my Name came right after Come to the City. It looked like Adam changed things up to play Your Love. The guitar tech came out with another guitar, but Adam kept going with the one he had. Yes, they sounded great.


And then...

The Greek is the biggest venue I've seen them play, and it was nearly sold out. Before the show started, I was thinking that the small venue days are over. I was the farthest away from the band that I'd ever been. No more getting the setlist handed to me by an attentive Adam after he's noticed that I was looking at it all night to see what was next up. The crowd was full of bros who'd heard some songs on the radio and liked them. When Arms Like Boulders was the first song, they all sat there, a little bewildered. That was another thing I loved about last night: Adam's still doing setlists that are from his entire discography (with an occasional Ronnie Wood cover), not just the hits and songs from the most recent album. But that can be a crowd killer at this stage. I loved the audacity of it, but the bros and the blondes were a little confused.

The surreality of seeing War on Drugs in a large venue got weirder as people started leaving the show when they didn't recognize the songs and with Adam playing some semi-blistering solos. I don't think a lot of people realize that the band rocks harder live than they do on records. The front section and the pit stayed full and engaged, but the side sections and the back sections started getting roomy about halfway through the show. I'm not sure the band noticed, which made me happy.

They're done playing for a while, I think. That multiple record deal with Warner means that he's got to stop touring and actually write and record another album, hopefully before four years go by. I'll miss seeing them every April and October like I have for the past two years, but I want a new album.
 
That's awesome you got to see them live. I've been listening to some of their more recent bootlegs and it sounds like they're killing it.
What was your favorite performance of the show?


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
 
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