I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 8, 2019] Illiterate Light

I had heard of Illiterate Light from NPR, but didn’t really know them.  They played at Newport Folk Festival but were early on Saturday and we arrived after them.

Traffic getting to this show was terrible and I was annoyed that we’d miss Illiterate Light (or part of their set anyhow).  S. said she didn’t mind missing the opening act as long as we made it for The Head and the Heart.

We walked in just as Illiterate Light took the stage and we got seated around the middle of the first song.  And I couldn’t get over how loud they were (particularly opening for a not-especially-loud band like The Head and the Heart).  They had big rocking guitar and crashing drums.

Then I looked up and realized that there were only two of them on stage.

So here’s some background on the band:

Spanning the better part of a decade, the creative evolution between Jeff Gorman and Jake Cochran is far from ordinary. The duo ran an organic farm in the Shenandoah Valley, toured the mid-Atlantic by bicycle, and lived in small communities while pursuing modes of alternative education.

But they weren’t a band for all of that time.

Formed in the summer of 2015, the band transcend expectations of typical rock music through their limitations as a duo. Gorman elevates his gritty guitar melodies and honest lyricism by stomping out thunderous synth bass with his feet as Cochran layers lush vocal harmony and explodes with body convulsing energy around his minimalist standing drum kit.

Yes, Jeff Gorman (right in all of these pictures) played guitar.  I was really puzzled where the bass was coming from.  I assumed it was on a pad that Cochran was hitting.  But later when Cochran introduced the band, he said that Gorman also played bass pedals (just like Geddy Lee).

Meanwhile, Jake Cochran had a very small drum kit and he stood behind it.  This allowed him to easily move all about the stage.  Like when he had a cymbal-hitting section, he could walk to the side of the kit to hit the cymbals from that side as well.  And boy when he hit the drums hard, it was powerful.

Meanwhile, they had amazing harmonies.  Their voices worked really well together.

Like a lot of duos, the guitar was loud and feedbacky to create a wall of sound while they rocked out.

Obviously I didn’t know their songs yet, so I don’t know exactly what they played.  But they sounded really great even in a large venue.

They also told us that their new album was coming out in two days!  I believe that most of the songs they played are on it, like “Nuthin’s Fair” and “In the Ground.”  They had released an EP before this and there are two songs on it that didn’t make the full length (“Sweet Beast” and “Two Cats”), maybe one or two of those were played as well.

One of the songs had a lengthy rocking guitar solo.  I was really impressed how much these guys could jam.

After a few songs, they brought out and old-fashioned looking microphone and Jake brought is floor tom over to it.  Jeff switched to an acoustic guitar and they set out to play a small acoustic set.

They sounded really good in this format–maybe their harmonies were even better here?

They played the pretty “Sometimes Love Takes So Long” and I believe “Without Walls.”  Then Jeff told us that they wrote the next song right after the election.  It is called “I Wanna to Leave America” and it name-checks Neil Young (and I felt sounded a lot like a Neil Young song).

They continued to interact with (and win over) the audience.  And at some point around here, Jake took off his long sleeved shirt to reveal a tiny crop-top shirt with flowers on it.  This shirt is in a lot of their promotional material, so I guess it’s a favorite (it certainly shows of his muscles).

Then Jake put his drum back and Jeff picked up the electric again and they played a few more loud songs, like the fantastic “Better Than I Used To” which has a great big riff and a catchy chorus and sounds a bit like My Morning Jacket (no bad thing).

Then they played a song I recognized–a bluesy song and I knew the words, but what was it?  Well, it turned out to be “Vampire Blues” from the Neil Young and The Promise of the Real album Earth.  It was such an unexpected cover and holy crap did it rock. They jammed out the middle with a hugely long solo and intense lighting.  And he sounded an awful lot like Neil Young, too.  It was great.

Jake was running all over the stage at this point and then getting back to his kit just in time.

Then for the last song, Jake took the microphone and held it for him and Jake to sing “Growin’ Down.”  This song was much quieter without the drums and the guitar was appropriately toned down.  They had a lot of fun singing it, you could tell.

I was really blown away by how good they were and S. admitted she was really glad we made it on time because they really impressed her.

Illiterate Light is playing Johnny Brenda’s in January and I think we’re going to try to catch them there too.

LIKELY SETLIST

1. Nuthin’s Fair
2. In The Ground
3. Carolina Loerlai
4. Sweet Beast
5. Sometimes Love Takes So Long (acoustic)
6. Without Walls (acoustic)
7. I Wanna Leave America (acoustic)
8. Better Than I Used To
9. Vampire Blues
10. Growin’ Down