crooked fingers, port o’brien @ great american (photos, review)
On Tuesday night I caught locals Port O’Brien (myspace) and Crooked Fingers (myspace) co-headlining at the Great American here in St. Francis.
Port O’brien was up. They’ve had quite a year, releasing their EPs/ demos compilation CD the Wind and the Swell and then their first full album All We Could Do was Sing and touring with all manners of artists both here and abroad. They seemed like they enjoyed playing the historic Great American stage and the crowd was certainly into them. By the time they finished with a shout-along version of “I Woke Up Today” with a ton of people helping on stage, the band had run through a number of acoustic songs and a number of electric songs.
As for my own opinion of the show: after having seen them a few times this year already, including once at Treasure Island just a couple months ago, I have to say I’m at my saturation point for the time being.
Crooked Fingers started out as just frontman Eric Bachmann doing a nice version of “You Must Build a Fire”. After that, the rest of the band joined him: drums, bass, and violin (along with backup vocals and occasion second guitar or a steel guitar).
It’s been a few years since I last saw them, though I have seen Eric Bachmann solo in between. Coming off of their new release Forfeit/ Fortune, they played a number of new songs that were unfamiliar to me and most of the audience, I would imagine. As if to make up for that they played a number of other songs that would be counted as Crooked Fingers favorites. The band’s tight–one thing about a band lead by someone who’s been an indie presence for 16+ years is that even if he wasn’t good at guitar to start with that’s a lot of time to get good. Even on the most complicated parts, Bachmann played them with effortless ease and the rest of the band seemed to follow his lead.
In addition, they broke out a number of songs from Eric Bachmann’s other projects. They did some of his solo songs, but the jaws really dropped when those oh-so-familiar five snare hits start on “Web in Front” (the Archers of Loaf’s biggest hit). The audience ate it up and sang along with gusto. Later, when they came back for their encore, the band went into a very Crooked Fingersified version of “White Trash Heros” and then a pretty Archers-reminiscent version of “Harnessed in Slums”. As if to bring the show back around to the beginning, they finished with Bachman almost solo (with just a few violin flourishes thrown in).
This was a great set and it was a fun show.
Here’s Crooked Fingers’ approximate set list, pieced together from their (incomplete) on stage set list and my (and my concert buddy’s) memory.
You Must Build a Fire
Bad Man Coming
Crowned in Chrome
Islero
Man of War [Eric Bachmann]
Let’s Not Pretend (To Be New Men)
Lonesome Warrior [Eric Bachmann]
What Never Comes
Modern Dislocation
Sleep All Summer
New Drink for the Old Drunk
Web in Front [Archers of Loaf]
Cannibals
Your Control
–encore–
White Trash Heros [Archers of Loaf]
Harnessed in Slums [Archers of Loaf]
Don’t Say A Word(?)
Hippies are Dead was also there and has a good review and some photos.
Apparently Port O’Brien are on the verge of not being “locals”: only the drummer lives in Oakland, and the rest of the band has apparently taken up residence in San Luis Obispo…
HAD, yeah, I’d heard that they’d move farther away (though I heard Santa Cruz and Point Reyes). Perhaps I should call them “semi-local”.
Local or not, why had no one told me that Port O’Brien members were so hot?!
Also, I think the reason it was so hard to remember which songs Crooked Fingers played is because it felt like every single song was my favorite song. Usually I go see a show and the band plays a bunch of their music and then that one song that I love. Not this show! It seemed like every time Bachmann picked up a guitar he was playing my “favorite song.” Partly because I find a HUGE percentage of the Crooked Fingers/ Eric Bachmann/ Archers of Loaf repertoire is “my favorite.” Partly because they played a wickedly solid set.
“So what did they play?” a friend asked of the show.
“EVERYTHING.” Perhaps that wasn’t true, but it felt like it.
That was a great show. Really great show.