Opener Apollo Mudd took the refrigerated stage at the Old Rock House in silence. I mean actual silence; a sound problem prevented them from starting their set for several minutes and prompted their singer to remark, "This is the kind of bullshit that only happens to me" once the issue was fixed. This wasn't the last of Apollo Mudd's list of complaints. In fairness to the staff at the Old Rock House, the "technical problem" that inspired further comments like "I wanna kill EVERYTHING right now" and "This is the worst show we've ever played" sounded less like a system failure and more like the frustration of an unprepared band who went heavy on the hair and guitar worship and, unfortunately, also on sloppy rhythms and tantrum-throwing.
Apollo Mudd sounded like a less melodic version of the Strange Boys, a band whose seemingly lackadaisical style is a purposeful front for a tight garage whine and carefully-crafted discordant harmonies. Apollo Mudd hasn't mastered this cloak-and-dagger move just yet. Their foundation is solid but they aren't adept at building actual songs or maintaining a stage presence, and despite their proclamations that "We don't normally sound this bad," the facial expressions of some staff members and patrons expressed annoyance at the band's temperamental reaction to themselves.
Thankfully, the Features weren't deterred by the alleged sound issues that plagued Apollo Mudd's set. This allowed the Features to steal the bill, masterfully smashing together a typified Brooklyn yowl with good-time Nashvillian barroom dirt. Their sound featured (heh) the kind of Mid-South guitar heard pouring from American-made car speakers in concert parking lots, raspy snare and a trippy organ that created a dizzying, Old-West carnival effect wrapped in swirls of noise. This is something the Kings of Leon (a band with whom the Features have toured several times) once seemed to own outright on early albums like "Holy Roller Novocaine," but later abandoned in favor of whatever it is that makes them walk offstage mid-concert these days.
The Features played everything big and loud, the infectious hooks of "Whatever Gets You By" and "Lions" delivered with singer Matt Pelham's well-earned cocky swagger and a steady, rolling bass that lent even the most frenetic songs a sort of desperado texture. There was cowbell present; maybe the Features could look into incorporating a slide whistle, too.
The couple sharing a table with me said that this was the fourth time they'd seen the band live, and that a Features song had been the choice for their wedding -- which I suppose could be appropriate. The Features have taken that romanticized version of rock 'n' roll promised by onetime saviors like Kings of Leon and the Strokes and nurtured it into a style with legs, full of bombast and grit that can steal a show.
Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Kevin Devine had a hard act to follow, but the energy of his performance added punch to his folkier tendencies. Devine's set opened with "You're My Incentive," an earnest and self-deprecating examination of stagnancy from his debut solo album, 2003's "Make the Clocks Move."
Devine doesn't write songs so much as he writes narratives, a habit that saves his more ardently personal songs from getting lost in emo territory. "No Time Flat" had a nerdy kind of Ben Folds influence, while the backing instrumentals of the Goddamn Band bolstered the politically-charged lyrics with genuine feeling, diffusing what a less experimental musician could have relegated to boy-with-a-guitar ire.
The livelier feel of the songs from 2005's "Split the Country, Split the Street" and its follow up, 2006's "Put Your Ghost to Rest" was better suited to a live show (especially one following a Features set) than some of Devine's more introspective songs (from "Make the Clocks Move" and 2009's seeming Elliot Smith revival effort, "Brother's Blood"). His latest album, "Between the Concrete and Clouds," is a more fully-realized marriage of Devine's preferred styles, and allowed for the psychedelic mood of a song like "Off-Screen" to show off a balladeer's recently expanded vocal range with the dreamy layers of rhythm and robust guitar riffs. Devine and the Goddamn Band fit snugly within their ever-unfurling crescendoes and complex arrangements, deftly resuming control of a rowdy, post-Features house.
I'd be interested in seeing how this sort of double-bill relationship plays out when the more stylistically similar An Horse takes over for the Features on the second leg of the tour, but as you can see from the above, I'm happy enough that I could witness this lineup.
