Last night, I caught Nada Surf (myspace) and Port O’Brien (myspace) at Swedish American Hall. Both groups did acoustic, sit-down sets. It was their third show together and the third of this series of more informal, smaller shows for Nada Surf.

Port O’Brien was first. I’d been talking about them for a long time but I’d never seen them live. They were five total. From left to right: bass, Van on guitar, Cambria on banjo, guitar and piano and behind them was Josh on drums and autoharp. The whole group was in on the vocals with Van or Cambria providing the leads. They played an exciting and passionate set. At times, Van was very into it and often almost seemed in a trance. At other times he was definitely very aware of the audience as he incited us to sing along, like with their last song, “I Woke Up Today” (featuring Patrick and Graham from Rogue Wave). He has us sing the wordless “oh-ah-oh” part and would scream things like “Two more times, San Francisco”. Sometimes I really like synecdoche. They knocked “I Woke Up Today” out of the park and I think their set in general won them over some new fans.

There was a no-photo rule in effect (that was summarily ignored by a few) so here is just one covertly snapped photo of Port O’Brien’s last song

After a break that was just long enough to get people a little antsy, the Nada Surf guys came onto the stage. I’d seen them in an acoustic set up before but this was a full set whereas that time was it was them with a lot of bands. From left to right we had Daniel on bass and vocals, Ira on cajon drum and vocals and Matthew Caws on guitar and lead vocals.

They started with an old favorite (which, somehow, slips my mind) and then launched into a set of brand new tunes. Occasionally they’d throw an old one in to get the audience into that oh-I-know-this-one-so-I’ll-nod-my-head mode. Overall their set was tight and fun, though not particularly familiar.

For the encore they did, I think, five songs:

• Fruit Fly
• Blonde on Blonde
• ? [anyone remember?]
• Always Love
• the Blankest Year

It was during the encore that I think they really hit their stride. By the end of it, the entire audience was on their feet scream-singing “FUCK IT!” (the backup vocals to “the Blankest Year”; imagine what the neighbors must have thought!) in unison. It was something else.

For the curious, it appears Nada’s whole new album (out Tuesday) is streaming on their myspace page.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 3rd, 2008 at 11:00 pm Posted by adrian in SF bay area, live review, photos. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.