I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 24, 2016] Restorations

Restorations opened for Band of Horses.  They’re from Philadelphia, but I didn’t know them at all.  At the end of the set the singer said that they used to practice around the corner from the venue and that it was a real trip playing here.  So that was fun.

Before the show, I looked them up and saw them described as alternative, punk and post-hardcore. I was expecting a really heavy rocking band.  But somehow, when they opened for Band of Horses, they sounded a lot more like…Band of Horses.  I’ve been listening to their stuff on the site and I’d say there’s something about the guitars of “Misprint” that reminded me of BoH.

On their studio albums, lead singer Jon Loudon has a gravelly voice, but it didn’t quite sound that way live for some reason.  And the music had the soaring quality of Band of Horses’ more rocking songs.

And it was great.  They were definitely heavier than BoH, but the overall vibe worked perfectly.

The drummer in particular played some great rhythms and really bashed the hell out of the kit.  But the whole band played well off each other.  There were quite a few guitars, occasional keys and a small horn section.

Loudon said that the trumpeter and trombonist who were on stage were playing live with them for the first time.  They added a nice touch but were not mic’d so it wasn’t always easy to hear them.  But when they came through it was good.

I don’t know any of their songs, so I can’t give a setlist, but According to some recent shows, the songs they’ve been playing are:  New Old, The Plan, Separate Songs, West River, Misprint, D, A, Let’s Blow Up the Sun, The Future, Tiny Prayers and Documents.  Confirmation of lyrics shows I have a 20 second clip of “Tiny Prayers” here.

I’ve been listening to their stuff on their tumblr site (it tickles me that their albums are called Restorations, LP2 and LP3) and it’s really good.

They were a great complement to Band of Horses (Ben Bridwell also raved about them when he came on stage) and I’m excited to hear more from them.