I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 25, 2019] Pinegrove

This is the third time I have seen Pinegrove.  I saw them in 2017 and had plans to see them two more times by the end of the year.  But they cancelled their shows and took a hiatus.  They came back this year and I was lucky enough to catch one of their first shows back down in Asbury Park.

Despite having seen them just a few months earlier, I felt somewhat unsatisfied about that HoI show.  Not sure what it was–maybe because I was off to the side too far, or what.  I mean the band sounded great that night.  But I felt like I needed one more show from them, and tonight’s show scratched that itch.

Even though they played pretty much the same set, something about this show felt complete.

Maybe it was that they upgraded from a curtain with their logo of two boxes on it to neon lights in the shape of two boxes.

Or maybe it was that there six people on stage instead of five?

I really enjoyed the stage design.

There were small tables with lights on them.  The lights were lit during the whole show so that when the stage lights went off, the desk lights were still lit, casting a warm glow on the stage.  There was also a globe and, as you’ll see in the picture below, some child-friendly weather pictures.

They came out to much applause (and an irritating woman who was convinced that if she stood wedged in between myself an another person that she would eventually just fit in the spot? (she gave up after a while).  There were also a few drunken yahoos behind me talking quite loudly when they weren’t singing along quite loudly (I don’t understand people).

The band played 20 songs.  There were nine from their current album Skylight, only three from their first album Cardinal, and a bunch of older songs.  They also played three unreleased songs, which was kind of cool.

I really enjoy the way Evan Stephens Hall tends to stand back from his mic and sing with his voice slowly getting louder like on “Darkness.”

Evan was wearing a shirt that said lepidoptera and was covered with butterflies on front and back.  He was also wearing some nifty socks.

When they started playing the new single “Moment” this guy next to me went nuts shouted “fuck yeah” over and over, which is kind of funny–it’s not like they weren’t going to play the new single.

During the sometimes lengthy pauses between songs, the crowd was chatty with the band.  We learned that their sloth, Lincoln was now joined on stage by a duck named Debra and a Penguin named Bernard.

I also really enjoyed the weather-themed panels that was on the front of the drum riser.

Speaking of drums, this is the second show in a row that I realized what a beast drummer Zack Levine is.  He fits the band very well–playing very softly during the soft parts–sometimes with brushes.  But when those songs get big (as they often do), he does not hold back.  You can feel the power in those thuds.

The band was set up on stage in a different configuration from last time, with guitarist/pedal steel player Nick Levine on the far side of the stage.  He was right in front of me last time (I didn’t realize I was on the right side of the stage at both shows, which is only odd because i usually stand to the left).  He was a little hard to see when he played pedal steel, which was kind of a drag, but not a big one.

Bassist Megan Benavente doesn’t really every come out of her deep pocket near the back, but she contributes wonderfully both in bass and in backing vocals.

One of  the most amazing things to me about Pinegrove is the way everyone sings along (loudly) to pretty much every song.  So a song like “Cadmium” which they seem to always play has a huge singalong factor.

Last time they had Nick Levine play slide guitar on a few songs like “Intrepid“, which he did in this show as well.  It adds a nice additional sound to their already full palette.

Songs from their early EPs like “The Metronome” (one of my favorites) and “Problems” fit in perfectly with a newer songs like “Rings” and “Portal.”

Even though people sing along to every old song, I think the songs on Cardinal get the biggest reaction, like the singalong on “Size of the Moon.”

Evan switched between a number of guitars.  I believe he had two electric and two acoustic.  The acoustic changes the songs quite a bit to a more folky style like on the lovely “Skylight.”

Sam Skinner seemed to play more keyboards than guitar this time (the other two times I’ve seen them he was on guitar mostly).  That is probably because they had another guitarist onstage this time. Really close in front of me was guitarist Josh Marre.  I couldn’t really see him all that well, but i did see him use a slide a few times during the solos (and in this picture, he was playing the strings near the guitar head while using a slide below them. 

One of everyone’s favorite Pinegrove songs is “Angelina.”  This song is barely over a minute and it is so catchy that people shouted for them to play it again (they didn’t).  But Evan did explain why he liked writing short songs–he felt that sometimes it was crucial to condense a concept into it’s smallest possible format.  Hence the number of early songs that are under two minutes long.

He also told us that he’s been enjoying playing “Amulets” and “Light on” as a kind of medley because they seem like two sides of the same story.

The two new songs were quite enjoyable. He joked  that like all of their other songs, they start small and get big. It’s hard to form a full opinion of them based on one listen but “Hair Pin,” “The Alarmist” and “Endless” promise that the new album will sound slightly different while keeping that Pinegrove sound.

Before “Endless” he told us that they had three songs left, so we could think of them as the encore if we liked.  He also said something about going around the world, which inspired him to spin the globe at the front of the stage (“that wasn’t planned,” he promised).

The next song was the undeniably fantastic “Old Friends.”  I was a little bummed they didn’t play “New Friends” as well, as I assumed that was always the show ender, but they ended with another fan favorite from Cardinal, “Aphasia.”

Like every time I’ve seen them, I had a great time.  They are a very warm and inviting band and Evan is a charming front man.

And this time I felt like I got a full Pinegrove experience.

Even though those cancelled concerts in 2017 were a disappointment, I feel like the hiatus did good things to the band and these shows were better than they would have been two years earlier.

Union Transfer, Sept 2019	House of Independents, March 2019	First Unitarian Church, 2017
Darkness § (2)	Cadmium * (2)	Old Friends *
Moment**	Problems ϖ (2)	Aphasia *
Cadmium * (3)	Rings §	Visiting *
Intrepid § (2)	Portal §	Over My Shoulder ⊕ [1]
The Metronome ⊕ (3)	Intrepid §	V ±
Rings § (2)	The Metronome ⊕ (2)	Waveform * [1]
Portal § (2)	Size of the Moon * (2)	Angelina §
Need 2 ϖ (2)	V ± (2)	Easy Enough §
Problems ϖ (3)	Thanksgiving §	Cadmium *
Hair Pin**	Easy Enough § (2)	Size of the Moon *
Easy Enough § (3)	Amulets §	Paterson + Leo § [1]
Size of the Moon * (3)	Light On §	Problems ϖ
Skylight § (2)	Angelina § (2)	Need 2 ϖ
The Alarmist**	& ±	The Metronome ⊕
Angelina § (3)	Old Friends * (2)	Recycling ⊕ [1]
Amulets § (2)	Aphasia * (2)	New Friends *
Light On § (2)	Visiting * (2)
Endless**	Darkness §
Old Friends* (3)	Skylight §
Aphasia* (3)	Then Again *
	New Friends *

⊕ Meridian (2012).
± & EP (2013).
ϖ Mixtape Two (2014).
* Cardinal (2016).
§ Skylight (2018).
** Marigold (2019).