Liverpool O2 Academy, 6 November 2010

The Walkmen are an American indie rock band, with members based in New York City and Philadelphia. The band formed in 2000 with three members from Jonathan Fire*Eater - Paul Maroon (guitar, piano), Walter Martin (organ/bass), and Matt Barrick (drums) - and two from The Recoys, Peter Bauer (bass/organ) and Hamilton Leithauser (vocals, guitar).The newly-formed band, who wished to distance themselves from the garage rock sounds of previous bands, released a self-titled EP of songs in 2001 on Startime International, a small Brooklyn-based record label. Shortly after release of the EP, which featured an eccentric blend of upright pianos and other vintage instruments, The Walkmen made their official live debut with a performance at Joe’s Pub in the East Village.

The 2002 debut album Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone, released by Startime, was well received by critics. The album was noted for its innovative approach to atmosphere and instrumentation, with sparse bass and drums complemented by plinking piano, jangly guitars and Leithauser’s unique vocal stylings. Two of the songs on the album, “The Blizzard of ‘96″ and “That’s the Punchline,” were adaptations of tracks meant for The Recoys’ unreleased full-length album.

Critics compared the results of the album to past work by U2 and The Cure as a result of the uniqueness of its sound as compared to other contemporary New York City bands such as The Strokes. One of the album’s songs, “We’ve Been Had,” was featured in a commercial for a Saturn Ion automobile.

The band’s follow-up album, Bows + Arrows, was released on the Record Collection label in 2004 and was listed by many critics as one of the year’s best albums. The album spawned singles for the songs “The Rat” and “Little House of Savages.” Critical success of the album led the band to perform on the popular Fox series The O.C. Bows + Arrows was noted for containing a more immediate and focused sound than its predecessor; both “The Rat” and “Little House of Savages” were seen as stark contrasts to much of the band’s past outputs.

Two more albums were released (A Hundred Miles Off and Pussy Cats) in 2006. In 2008 You & Me was released followed by (for me) the latest and greatest album release, LISBON, which was completed in 2009 but released in the UK in 2010 under the Bella Union Label.

It’s unusual for me to attend a show just to see the support band but that’s what happened when headliner Black Keys visited Liverpool last week. I’ve never quite understood the Black Keys’ music although the latest album is starting to grow on me big-time, and it was surprising how/why the duo managed to sell-out the thousand plus capacity Liverpool O2 Academy. But then I noticed that the auditorium was unusually full for the support act, the Walkmen, and I summised that the band had actually contributed substantially to ticket sales. This wasn’t altogether surprising given the distinctive quality of the band, past successful UK tours, string of excellent album releases, including the most recent and very wonderful LISBON.

The Walkmen is a special band who produce wonderful albums but it’s in the live arena that all of this band’s many strengths come into sharp focus. The song-writing is superb and certainly up there with the very best indie rock bands. The songs are largely anthemic and epic in scale as vocally interpreted by one of the best front-men around in Hamilton Leithhauser. His delivery and style is passionate and akin to a volcana whose lava ebbs and flows just before the major explosion. The band has a unique instrumental sound based on swathes of reverb and Matt Barrick’s deadbeat and decisive bass rhythms that remind me of Ringo Starr’s
playing style.

There’s no friendly ‘hello Liverpool’ as the suited gents mount the stage and proceed to blow the audience into kingdom come. Early in the 45 minute set the new album features strongly with ‘Blue As Your Blood’, ‘Angela Surf City’, ‘Woe Is Me’ opening the assault. The audience response was spectacular and confirmed to me that a major part of this sell-out crowd had come to see the guys. Then came my album favourite ‘Victory’ that grows steadily into the most epic and desolate scale as Leithauser provides the night’s most special minutes as he reaches and holds an impossible note.

Mid-set the band played a couple of older songs but this was largely a new album promo event and certainly one of the best live perforamnces in 2010 and for a support band easily the best audience response - I even caught the dour lead-man let loose a smile towards the end of what was an unforgettable set.

Blue As Your Blood
Angela Surf City
Woe is Me
Victory
Louisiana
On the Water
Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me is Gone
While I Shovel the Snow
Canadian Girl
Thinking Of A Dream I Had
All Hands and the Cook
In the New Year
Juveniles