Venue:
Hare and Hounds
Date: 23/08/2016
What a joy to be able to walk down the road to see a band, and be back in time for Newsnight. On the hottest night of the year four of us joined the two hundred odd packed into the H and H upstairs for Chicago’s hottest new Pitchforkers, Whitney.
How Afterword friendly are they? Just about 100%. Think of a Venn diagram with The Band, Vampire Weekend ,and 70s country-rock and Whitney sit proudly in the middle. They line-up six strong, including frontman/singer/drummer (ace mike stand like a curved standard lamp), and trumpet alongside the guitars and keyboards. The trumpet does a huge amount of work in crafting a distinctive sound that lifts them above standard Americana. They have definitely all been to college, some may have studied maths.
They gave us a short but very sweet set drawn from their debut LP, no encore and a feeling that that was just about perfect. No extended jams, but the confidence to play around with a few stops and starts to show how tight they are. I’m reminded of The National in their all-round quality and musicianship, and rapport with the audience.
Great things await. If they’re at a Festival near you (Reading/Leeds/End of the Road) over the next couple of weeks they are well worth a listen. Gigs upcoming in Nov with Julia Jacklin.
The audience:
Huge age-range, from 20s to grizzled sixties. Beards popular on and off-stage.
It made me think..
It’s been a long time since I’d seen a band so early in their career they played every song they had.
They did add one track to the debut lp tracklist, a cover of Dylan’s Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You. What are the chances eh?
You pressed a few of the right buttons for me there Mo’ – and I see they are playing my favourite venue in November (which also does a nice early finish) so that’s that sorted….Thanks for the recommendation.
Thanks MM. Sound very promising and, as you say, it’s always special to see a band who are up and coming.
Will add them to my: Keep my eyes peeled for list.
@anton @kaisfatdad they’re on emusic if you’ve a sub.
not sure what that means but I bought a record
Heard “No Matter Where We Go” on the radio t’other day – album ordered when I got home from work.
Hopefully turn up soon
Should’ve added another AW friendly comparison: Big Star
No emusic here but the album is on Spotify so I’ll give it a listen today.