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Here We Go Magic Setlist
Tour Dates
Nov. 6 – Seattle, WA @ Sunset Tavern
Nov. 7 – Vancouver, BC @ Fortune Sound Club Nov. 8 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios Nov. 10 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent Nov. 13 – Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Theater Nov. 14 – San Diego, CA @ San Diego Music Thing Nov. 15 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar Nov. 17 – Austin, TX @ Red 7 Nov. 18 – Dallas, TX @ Three Links Nov. 19 – New Orleans, LA @ Siberia Nov. 20 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl Nov. 21 – Durham, NC @ The Pinhook Read More
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New York-based band Here We Go Magic stopped by the historic First Avenue's side room, the 7th Street Entry, on Sunday, November 1st.
Opener Big Thief is a fellow New Yorker band that has a lead singer (Adrianne Lenker) who exudes sincerity and style. The bell shaped jeans she was sporting were pretty far out. Lenker is actually a Minnesota native and had a good amount of friends and family out to support her that night. As earnest as her music, she gave a shout out to all her favorite people in the crowd. I really enjoyed their set; they were a little bit folk and country with guitar noodling that brought to mind Dinosaur Jr. and Slowdive at times.
Here We Go Magic is touring behind their new album, Be Small. It's an exquisitely polished record that shows what self-producing brings to the Here We Go Magic riff factory. As meticulous as past albums have been, one might have been thrown off by their self-titled, with its lo-fi sound. It was an ambitious album, truly psychedelic as its namesake suggests and equal parts: playful and introspective. I’ve read a lot of different opinions on the band, and it seems the consensus is that HWGM is an enigma of genres, ever changing, and evolving; never satisfied with one particular sound. As much as I agree that they like to experiment with different sounds and every record brings another element to the table, I think they’ve always had this unifying sound of intellectual, ethereal, multi-layered, psychedelia.
In their self-titled they channeled bands circa 1970s; in Pigeons, 1980s; in A Different Ship, 2000s chamber pop; but even then, they’ve always had elements of those things and more peppered in all their albums. With Be Small the band goes full on Steely Dan with the meticulous sheen of pop they are enveloping around the HWGM sound. Regardless, the band retains its free spirited agenda, and makes songs that may disrupt the flow of the album, but are finely crafted and a great listen due to the texturing they employ.
That is what I enjoy the most about the band, they have always had eccentric, yet incredibly catchy rhythms to most of their best work, which just brings me to a conversation my room-mate and I had. Where I jokingly played off that I was seeing an indie band, and since he didn’t know the name that made them extra cool. After playing a few albums for him, he told me that it would be criminally underselling the band by just lumping them into the catch all term of “Indie rock.” I wholeheartedly agree, and the live show I saw matched up to the high energy performance they gave when I saw them support Grizzly Bear in 2009.
From the opener “Stella,” to the second and last song of the encore, “How Do I Know,” HWGM’s music kept the audience in a trance. “Be Small,” the 3rd song on the set, was anything but small. Fourth song “Tunnelvision” was a good contrast and reminder of what they started from. “Collector,” electrifying and a great treat to hear live. And they closed with “Falling,” the adorable, slick, synth anthem of the album. Throughout the night, I made it a point of dancing. I for one do not understand how you can stand idly when someone is playing anything remotely groovy, and groovy were all of the songs, even the slow chugging “Over the Ocean.” For the closing song, two of the Big Thief crew joined in on a dance party... which I may or may not have helped started.
For everything that HWGM is, I am surprised that they are not better known. Maybe sets such as the one I saw, and hopefully future albums like the polished Be Small will help them grow into the First Avenue mainroom headlining act I know they can be. Go out and get a copy of Be Small, out on Secretly Canadian since October 16th of this year. Catch one of their shows if they are coming to your town, bring a date, and get ready to dance!
Big Thief
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Here We Go Magic is touring behind their new album, Be Small. It's an exquisitely polished record that shows what self-producing brings to the Here We Go Magic riff factory. As meticulous as past albums have been, one might have been thrown off by their self-titled, with its lo-fi sound. It was an ambitious album, truly psychedelic as its namesake suggests and equal parts: playful and introspective. I’ve read a lot of different opinions on the band, and it seems the consensus is that HWGM is an enigma of genres, ever changing, and evolving; never satisfied with one particular sound. As much as I agree that they like to experiment with different sounds and every record brings another element to the table, I think they’ve always had this unifying sound of intellectual, ethereal, multi-layered, psychedelia.
In their self-titled they channeled bands circa 1970s; in Pigeons, 1980s; in A Different Ship, 2000s chamber pop; but even then, they’ve always had elements of those things and more peppered in all their albums. With Be Small the band goes full on Steely Dan with the meticulous sheen of pop they are enveloping around the HWGM sound. Regardless, the band retains its free spirited agenda, and makes songs that may disrupt the flow of the album, but are finely crafted and a great listen due to the texturing they employ.
That is what I enjoy the most about the band, they have always had eccentric, yet incredibly catchy rhythms to most of their best work, which just brings me to a conversation my room-mate and I had. Where I jokingly played off that I was seeing an indie band, and since he didn’t know the name that made them extra cool. After playing a few albums for him, he told me that it would be criminally underselling the band by just lumping them into the catch all term of “Indie rock.” I wholeheartedly agree, and the live show I saw matched up to the high energy performance they gave when I saw them support Grizzly Bear in 2009.
Setlist
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For everything that HWGM is, I am surprised that they are not better known. Maybe sets such as the one I saw, and hopefully future albums like the polished Be Small will help them grow into the First Avenue mainroom headlining act I know they can be. Go out and get a copy of Be Small, out on Secretly Canadian since October 16th of this year. Catch one of their shows if they are coming to your town, bring a date, and get ready to dance!
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Here We Go Magic at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (01 Nov 2015) |
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