Last week’s three-band bill at Fry’s Spring Beach Club was likely the loudest event to resound through the thickly wooded neighborhood since the venue was constructed—or at least since that storied Sons of Bill gig last December. Unexpectedly—and, at times, deceptively—loud. I’ll explain further, but first you’re going to have to follow me through something typically avoided in rock criticism: grade-school mathematics.
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The Fiery Furnaces expertly restrain rock chaos at Fry’s Spring Beach Club. |
The Cinnamon Band, the Staunton-based opening act, is a duo; White Rabbits, the Brooklyn-based second act, is a sextet; headlining band The Fiery Furnaces is a foursome. Average number of members per band? Four, rock ’n’ roll’s greatest (or most frequent) common denominator. It worked in Liverpool, it worked in Detroit Rock City, and it worked in Spinal Tap, right?
Ah, but objects onstage may be louder than they appear. Take opening act The Cinnamon Band, a group previously praised in this paper as “a two-piece that sounds like a five-piece,” and who stayed true to form with a seven-song opening set that included this year’s Buena Vista EP played in its entirety. A two-song block—“Yer Bluff” and “Wider Than a Mile”—showcased just how much necessary noise is generated by drummer Neil Campbell, who filled in low-end gaps and fired off a few rhythmic fills in the spots typically reserved for bassists and guitarists, respectively.
If The Cinnamon Band was a barbaric yaw trapped in a small body, then White Rabbits came off a bit like a large, clumsy teenager—too many limbs, too little motivation to put ’em to proper use. The Rabbits covered a good sonic spectrum that somehow seemed more convincing with my eyes closed—notes of Joy Division, a hefty helping of mentors Spoon. Open them, and the six-piece band—as many as three members drumming on songs like “Kid on my Shoulders,” typically four guitarists for tracks from this year’s TBD Records release It’s Frightening—seemed flabby. It was an indie rock caricature with a body too big for its head.
Roughly a third of the crowd seemed to vanish after the Rabbits’ recent single, “Percussion Gun”—not the first instance during this tour, one crowd member told me. Those that stayed, however, saw a second spin on the “minimal members, maximum wreckage” formula courtesy of headliners The Fiery Furnaces—deeply rooted in place by drummer Bob D’Amico and former Sebadoh member Jason Loewenstein on bass, but swinging wildly in the shifting genre winds called down by guitarist Matthew Friedberger. For her part, vocalist Eleanor Friedberger once more proved herself a karaoke singer’s worst nightmare, rarely breaking between syllables from the opening notes of “Leaky Tunnel” through a set that drew heavily on material from I’m Going Away and peaked during performances of “The End is Near” and “Ex-Guru,” in which she spat choruses at every rhythm under the sun ’til she found one that stuck.
