I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: February 29, 2020] Slaughter Beach, Dog

I had heard, vaguely, of Slaughter Beach, Dog but I didn’t know anything about them.  So I was really surprised that a band with a name like that wound up playing quiet folky music.

The band was a three piece, but aside from singer guitarist Jake Ewald, I don’t know who else was on stage.

I found out after the show that Ewald was previously the singer/guitarist for Modern Baseball, a band I’d heard of but didn’t know.  I also read that Ian Farmer, bassist for Modern Baseball played on the latest Slaughter Beach, Dog album.  But I’m not sure if that was him on stage.

So they came out on stage, and Jake Ewald was soft spoken and funny.  Had I known he had been a front man for so long, I wouldn’t have assumed he seemed a little nervous or shy up there.  Perhaps that’s just the persona for Slaughter Beach, Dog (I have no idea what he was like for Modern Baseball).

They played about seven or eight or ten songs.

I found all of their songs pleasant and enjoyable.  Although there were a few girls in front of me who were ecstatic about everything he played.

The instrumentation didn’t change much.  At some point Ewald switched from one acoustic guitar to a different one.  And on at least two songs he played harmonica as well.

I assumed most of the songs were from the new album Safe and Also No Fear, but the two tracks I got clips of are not.

“Building the Ark” comes from the Motorcyle.jpg EP and “Shapes I Know” comes from the 2017 album Birdie.

Overall, I found that Ewald’s delivery reminded me a lot of Nap Eyes, a band I really like.  The vocals are done in a kind of quiet, deadpan, droney style.  The kind that really necessitates paying attention to the lyrics, because if you don’t, it pretty much blurs into a pleasant three-minutes.

The difference with Nap Eyes is that the vocals are a little louder, so you can hear them a bit better and that there is a fantastic lead guitarist with the band who makes all kinds of interesting guitar sounds–melodies and solos) that keep the songs really interesting.  Slaughter Beach, Dog didn’t have that component, so they songs were all just pleasant.

The drummer was quite understated.  He was fun to watch since he was facing sideways.  So at one point I watched him carefully pick up a tambourine, making sure it didn’t jingle.  he hit it on his leg a few times and then gently placed it back.  I was also aware of his hi-hats and how they were very wide open for a couple of songs, but closer for some of the later ones. He also had a keyboard which he played for the entirety of one song and may have added other sounds to different songs.

I don’t know the names of any other songs they played–I’m really surprised they have no setlists online at all.

The guys in We Were Promised Jetpacks assured us that the guys in laughter Beach, Dog were super nice guys and that we should show them some love.

The show did make me check out some Modern Baseball stuff, but overall, I found them to be a nice opening band, but one I won’t remember much about.

Except for this fun picture of the bassist (right).