What Laura Says & Dear and the Headlights @ Avalon Theatre, Salt Lake City (7/12/08)

Ah, back to the Avalon Theatre, where the benches are just slightly too close together and teenagers traverse the aisles in packs.  But we were not here on any ordinary safari.  No, we were on special assignment to check out the two bands you see there in the title.  And check out is what we did...

While all three of us bloggers were planning on attending this show, only Stu and myself (Kraig) were able to make it. Nuts to Brock, you missed a good one.

Anyways, the show was riddled with absolutely pathetic opening bands. I think there were roughly 2 billion of them. It ranged from a bunch of high school kids trying to be the Red Hot Chili Peppers to some crappy Rancid wannabes with the bass player trapped in a bear suit. I kid you not, the man wore a bear suit yet he neglected to put on his mask. I informed him of his negligence every opportunity I had but he seemed rather embarrassed by the whole ordeal and eventually exited the stage.

Thankfully we were left with ONE good opening band - What Laura Says. I'll admit, I had no idea what I was getting into when these boys hit the stage. Based on the name I was expecting some form of emo-centric pop-punk. Luckily, what looked like a hippie commune came on stage rather than girl-pants wearing fauxhawk men. I was a little baffled by their set up - keys front and center, bass on one side, guitar on the other, drums behind. Sounds standard enough, right? Wrong.

One last member set up a xylophone, then proceeded to erect a table with all kinds of goodies on it. 

From our distance it was a little difficult to distinguish what was on the table, but it looked like a whole lot of ....urm...."glass sculptures". It turned out he set up what looked like a glass vase, egg shakers, a coffee tin and some other unrecognizable household items on the table. My thoughts were only left to wander as the band continued setting up, but I was certainly intrigued.

Once What Laura Says started playing I was hooked.  After listening through so many terrible bands I was ready for a breathe of fresh air, which is exactly what they provided.

Everything started in a normal enough fashion - guitars, drums, bass and keys.  Before too long the boys busted out in clap/stomp breakdown before bringing it all back home with sweet, sweet southern-blues inspired solo.  Oh, and that was just in one song.  The rest of the set featured some of the best bass playing I've heard in years, four-part vocal harmonies and more key changes than you can shake a stick at.

Obviously these guys aren't a band that everyone will "get".  If you're looking for a verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-double chorus band then you need to turn and run in the other direction.  If you're looking for some adventurous song writing, genius breakdowns and key shifts, innovative use of stomping and hand clapping and the best vocal harmonies this side of 1960's Liverpool than take a listen - they won't disappoint you.  Here's a few tracks from their upcoming album (out on August 19th) to get a better idea what I'm talking about:

[mp3] Pairadice

[mp3] Jasper Corrine

Visit What Laura Says online:  Official | Myspace
Pre-order the album:  CD Baby

Now, back to Stu for the rest of the show...

Yeah, wow, What Laura Says were incredible.  However, I was equally excited to be at that concert to hear Dear and the Headlights.  It continues to baffle me that these guys haven't got a ginormous following.  I keep listening through their first album, Small Steps, Heavy Hooves, and every time it amazes me how solid it is from start to finish.  Normally it's not the case that I'll love almost every song on a record, but yeah, that's what's happening.

First I've got to say, DATH has got to be either somewhat crazy or amazingly genius to have a band like What Laura Says open up for them.  When, on any given night, you may be forced to follow a mind-blowing set, that's one ballsy decision to make.  Still, I was definitely satisfied with Dear and the Headlights' performance.

Half the set consisted of quality tracks from the first album (including very rockin' versions of I'm Bored, You're Amorous and Grace), while the other half was made up of tracks from the new album, most of which were very intriguing.  My only complaint about the sound was that the vocals were far too low.  Yes, yes, I expect most of you are saying, "what, is this your first concert buddy?"  No, seriously, the vocals could only be heard in between rock-out moments, which is not acceptable to me.  These guys have some absolutely outstanding lyrics to go with their wonderful music, but how can anyone figure that out if they can't hear the words? Other than that one small error, I really liked the set.  It was pretty entertaining watching the piano man rocking out on nearly every song as well.  Oh and before I forget, that aforementioned new album is supposed to be out sometime in September, so keep your eyes peeled (I'll be sure to).

Also, all this listening to Dear and the Headlights has shown me my new favorite DATH song: I Just Do.  About two lines of lyrics are probably all that need said: "Calling to say hi on your break / in less than twenty words you made my whole damn day."  Nice.

[mp3] I Just Do

[mp3] I'm Bored, You're Amorous

Buy some Dear and the Headlights: Amazon | iTunes
Visit them online: Official | Myspace