[ATTENDED: March 8, 2020] Nap Eyes
I saw Nap Eyes open for Alvvays nearly three years ago. I was mesmerized by their mix of deadpan, melody and noise. Since then I’ve really enjoyed their first two albums. I missed their third one entirely somehow, but I was really looking forward to seeing them again.
I was especially looking forward to watching guitarist Brad Loughead because he managed to play really pretty melodies and then fill them awash with all kinds of distortion. It had been three years since I’d seen them, but when they came out on stage I looked at Loughead and though, wow, he looks an awful lot like Ryley Walker.
Well, sure enough, it WAS Ryley Walker, whom I had just seen him on New Year’s Eve doing some wild improvisational guitar playing.
I was a little disappointed because I was really looking forward to Loughead, but Ryley Walker was a great substitute. They play with very different styles, but Walker’s improvisational solos were fantastic. I talked to singer Nigel Chapman after the show and he said that Loughead’s other band was already touring so he couldn’t join them, but that Walker has been a friend for a while.
Chapman also looked very different. Three years ago he had a short bob of a haircut, Now it was past his shoulders.
The new album hadn’t come out yet (although they were selling copies at the merch table), so I didn’t know any of the new songs. It’s always a little disappointing to get a set full of songs you don’t know, but they were all really good. And Walker’s live guitar really added a lot to them.
They started with the new song “Primordial Soup.” The one good thing about a band playing all new songs is that when you listen to the record for the first time, those songs from the show stand out, just like “Soup” does.
They followed it with “Mark Zuckerberg” probably my favorite song of the year so far. It was just as good live as it is on record and I was really excited to hear it.
Up next was “Judgment” from I’m Bad. All night long I was loving the bass sound that Josh Salter was achieving, but I thought it was especially good on this song (although I think the bass is too loud in all of these videos).
The album of their that I know best is Thought Rock Fish Scale but since it is two albums ago, they only played one song from it, the terrific “Stargazer.” They also played this last time (here’s a clip from 2017). I also enjoyed that drummer Seamus Dalton was using mallets in this song–a great low tom rumbling.
They played three more new songs. At one point Josh mentioned that they had a new album about to come out–and that it was their fourth!. Nigel agreed and said they had copies at the merch table. The band is from Halifax, Nova Scotia, but Chapman has such a fascinating way of speaking. His accent is really hard to place and he seems… not nervous, because he’s a very confident front man, but like he’s not really sure what to do or say between songs. So there were lots of thumbs ups and smiles (which is delightful).
I
really liked “If I Can’t Read Your Mind” and the new single “Mystery Calling.”
They followed those with the only song from their debut album, Delirium and Persecution Paranoia, which isn’t on the setlist, but which I know I heard.
They ended with “I’m Bad,” a song that allowed Ryley Walker to play some wonderfully wild solos at the end.
Their set definitely left me wanting to hear more from them. So, when I saw that they were doing a small headlining tour in April, I immediately grabbed a ticket.
I imagine that the show will get postponed, although it hasn’t been postponed yet. If it is, I do hope they reschedule, as I’ll be totally ready to hear them headline by then.
SETLIST
- Primordial Soup §
- Mark Zuckerberg §
- Judgment ⊗
- Stargazer ♠
- Real Thoughts §
- Even Though I Can’t Read Your Mind §
- Mystery Calling §
- Delirium and Persecution Paranoia ϖ
- I’m Bad ⊗
§ = Snapshot of a Beginner (2020)
⊗ = I’m Bad (2018)
♠ = Thought Rock Fish Scale (2016)
ϖ = Whine of the Mystic (2014)
I Just Read About That... 
Leave a comment