[ATTENDED: May 16, 2018] Palehound
I saw Palehound three months ago at Johnny Brenda’s. This may be the shortest span between concerts for any band that I’ve seen.
Last time they were opening for Weaves. For this show Palehound was opening of Courtney Barnett.
I was very excited to see them again because I enjoyed their last set so much.
Guitarist/songwriter Ellen Kempner, is a great front woman–she blasts the guitar and is really great at her solos.
The set was similar to what they played last time, with a different slow song and no “My Pet Carrot.” But it was full of raging rockers that got us pumped for Courtney.
But there was something about the way her voice was mixed that made her sound a bit muddy. We were definitely not super close (Courtney Barnett sounded great). But Ellen sounded a bit more distorted than usual. So the power of her lyrics and the way the songs play with textures was lost a bit.
It may also have been that at Johnny Brenda’s everything was right in front of me (about 8 feet away) while here things were spaced out quite a bit. Kempner herself was relatively far away across the stage.
But it was no fault of the band. Bassist Larz Brogan (one of the most smiling bassists around) sounded great (on bass and backing vocals) and may have been even more fluid at this show. Drummer Jesse Weiss was also spot on, just like last time (and once again I couldn’t get a good picture of him).
I still haven;t quite gotten a hold of song titles (last time I saw the setlist, so i was able to figure it out).
But I do love “Molly.”and was glad they played it. I’m not sure what the other songs were, but I recognized most of them, which was good.
I hope they got some new fans.
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