Cafe DuNord has an undeniable romantic charm; a venue intelligently built to fully immerse the music lover in their passion for sound. Upon entering you follow a long stairwell down to a sizable bar area that leads to the cozy concert hall in back. Complete with side-bar at stage left – for dining and drinking – DuNord takes the listening experience to a whole new level. You’re just far enough to be spectator and just close enough to feel the output of artist energy. This night I invited my friend Douglas, a fellow writer, along with me to see Eulogies, on tour with Nightmare Air promoting their sophomore album Here Anonymous.
The crowd slowly mingled into the concert space; a small spattering of people meandering to and fro between the bar and stage area. Being a Monday, and an eclectic mix of artists, one could never be sure the type of crowd this show would conjure. Right on schedule Nightmare Air took the stage and launched into an impressive 20 minute set of space-age sounding alt rock. Bassist Swaan Miller offered ticklish entertainment with her whimsical vocals and bass styling. A refreshing opening act, they seemed in tune with themselves and their audience. Spectators caught on and began filling the somewhat empty performance space. To our right, a young man removed his backpack and began to gyrate enthusiastically to their beat. Their music was a bit avant-garde, lacking in satisfactory structure, but their performance was effervescently captivating enough to catch my attention and toe tap along.
After a 10 or so minute shuffle, Eulogies took stage while a projector began to flash black and white images of days and people gone by against the drum kit. After a quick introduction of who they were and where they hailed from, lead singer Peter Walker eagerly herded the band into their set. They played songs “Out of Character” and “Day-to-Day”, but each seemed to have an almost identical-sounding album-like quality, proving Eulogies has an adamant goal to deliver clean, well-crafted songs but allowing us to realize we were doing nothing more than listening to a glorified rendition of Here Anonymous, all shuffled around to give it the appearance of a “live show.” Being wordsmiths, we’re attracted to and placed at ease by words and stories. So much so we spent the better half of the show passing hand written notes on the performance back-and-forth. Peter Walker gave us no words but the ones he recorded months prior.
Walker is clearly a man qualified to front a rock band. With brooding demeanor, gray-tinged beard and inexplicable charm, his charisma has the tendency to overwhelm his vocal and songwriting talent. Perhaps this is where the dissociative nature of Eulogies live performance comes. In an effort to cast attention to the music, Eulogies seemed to clearly have forgotten about the importance of the performance. There’s no doubting Eulogies is a polished band, with the ability to someday make it in the big show with acceptable and, at times, impressive, indie-pop records, but the rigid-like quality of their on-stage performance sucked away the liveliness of their stage presence, an irony certainly not missed when viewing a band named Eulogies. The lackadaisical styling of their live performance was disconcerting and off-putting, especially to a new listener seeking to gain notable insight into their performance. Sure, all members give their all to each song; most provided harmonies and the split duties of rhythm guitar offered an eye and ear catching quality. However, I couldn’t help but have feelings of blame aimed directly at Walker for an uneven live gig. Surely a man with emotive lyrics, soulful eyes, fanciful fedora and finely crafted melodies can deliver more than this in person?
My eyes kept wandering toward bassist Garrett Deloian, as he seemed to show a much more enthusiastic attitude for being on stage than Walker. Drummer Chris Reynolds, a Belushi look-a-like if you ever saw one, kept a playful bounce through the course of the set, but Walker was clearly a man going through the motions. As it is Here Anonymous is a largely uneventful album with satisfactory harmonious and lyrical moments and how well an album like that translates in live performance is entirely up to the band. At one point we were deafened by feedback and I found myself relishing the sound. I’d never found technical difficulties to be more welcome than the band on-stage. When a moment of imperfection and unexpectedness is the intriguing moment in an otherwise uneventful performance, you’ve got a problem.
It wasn’t until Walker beckoned Land of Talk’s Elizabeth Powell up to contribute co-vocals, originally recorded by labelmate Silversun Pickup’s Nikki Monninger, on “Two Can Play” was there any sort of communication beyond song lyrics. And, like the surprisingly appreciated feedback, Powell added an element of amusement to an otherwise monotonous performance. Thankfully Eulogies saved “Two Can Play”, one of the more whimsical songs on Here Anonymous, for the latter part of their set. It helped serve as a last attempt to make some sort of connection to someone, anyone in that room. It tended to work as the vibe lifted from that of a crowd listening to an actual eulogy to a crowd gathered in a gorgeous music call for a live music show.
All-in-all the set was near 25 minutes and that was perfectly fine by us. We left perplexed, too bewildered by the Eulogies performance to enjoy the more upbeat styling of Powell and Land of Talk. By the time she and her awkwardly worn guitar launched into their third song the listlessness initiated by Walker and Co. had hit us and we proceeded to call that Monday night a wrap. Upon bidding each other adieu, I eyed the written notes we shared back and forth between Eulogies show. “Rush the stage!” Doug had written in bold near the center of the page. If I had thought it would add some entertainment and excitement to that lackluster performance, I most certainly would have.
by KayJay
