I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: November 7, 2016] Palm

The second opening act was a band called Palm.  My story about Palm I that given the set up of Boot & Saddle (it’s a small club with no backstage), I was (inadvertently) standing near the band’s gear when their set was done.  Their guitarist Eve walked literally next to me with her guitar on.  So I told her how much I liked the show.  She was super friendly and chatty and then another woman walked up to us.  She turned out to be Liz from Dilly Dally.  Liz told Eve that their set was great and that she had wanted to catch them at SXSW but couldn’t.  Eve was flattered and thanked Liz so much for letting them open, to which Liz smiled and waved her off.  Liz then said she was drinking an American Mule [vodka, and ginger ale and a lime] and said it was great offered Eve a sip.  Then she headed up stage.  I realize that neither of these bands are exactly stars, but that’s not happening at MSG, that’s for sure!

So Palm was fantastic.  An amazing band to see live (especially from so close).  The band plays noisy, complex music that has parts math-rock and parts shoegaze.  They remind me of Battles, but only in part.  The two guitarists Kasra Kurt and Eve Alpert are constantly playing different (and highly unlikely) chords or notes.  Meanwhile the bassist (Gerasimos Livitsanos) is typically playing his own patterns that somehow meld with the two and keep everything grounded.  And the drummer (Hugo Stanley) is doing complex things of his own.  It’s so hard to tell who you want to watch.

I love this little segment of great guitar work from Alpert, and note there’s a whole band doing interesting things like this going on at the same time.

It’s hard to even know where to start.  The first song (no idea what the songs were called) featured Kurt on vocals.  And what struck me immediately was how they were playing guitar chords and yet you could hear each string–as if they were picked, but not exactly.  It’s an unusual sound despite how simple it is, and it lends  the song a lurching quality that is strangely infectious.

Most of their chords, in fact, were very high on the neck of their guitars, which lends to very sharp sounds.

Alpert sang nearly half of the songs.  She played some chords on nearly the highest frets of the guitar which every third or four the time would include the low string introducing an unexpected low/high note.  All the while that Kurt was playing something else entirely.  Kurt’s guitar was totally beat up and he played a lot of angular sharp chords.

It was amazing watching them.  Some of their sections involve repeating chords some fifteen or sixteen times and yet despite the repetition, they were all in sync when it was time to shift to the next part.  It was great to see a band playing music that was this complex and yet they were so tight doing it.

It was exciting watching the drummer play some complex rhythms which sometimes involves a woodblock.  And then the bassist would occasionally throw in a complex riff that just added another texture to an already complex sound.

Their set was an unexpectedly wonderful treat.  I’m bummed I didn’t get many pictures of the band, but that’s because I was taking so many videos.

Palm has also chosen what appears to be a terrible name for search engines.  There are lots of bands with similar names (including Palms) which makes it hard to track these guys down.  I can’t even tell if they are from upstate New York or Philadelphia.  Well, whichever, they have a bandcamp site where you can stream and download.  It’s worth a listen.