I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: May 4, 2023] The Walkmen

When I got a ticket to this show, I was swept up in the excitement of this reunion tour.  I didn’t really know The Walkmen, but I knew of them.  I mostly knew Hamilton Leithauser from his solo work.  But I was also very familiar with their hit “The Rat.”

They announced two shows at Union Transfer and then added a third one because the first two sold so quickly. So I was caught up and bought a ticket.  Although I’m quite certain this last night did not sell out.

As the day approached, I wasn’t even entirely sure I was going to go to this show because I was going out tomorrow night as well.

But I decided to head out and not feel like I missed anything.

I got there much earlier than I intended so I was right up front, which was cool.

After a time, the band came out and wow were they different from the wild chaos of Liily.

So the band was the classic lineup: drummer Matt Barrick, guitarist Paul Maroon, and multi-instrumentalist Walter Martin [all former members of Jonathan Fire*Eater–I had no idea] and bassist/organist Peter Matthew Bauer and singer Hamilton Leithauser [who playd in The Recoys].

Because I didn’t know anything about their songs or what albums they were on, I am no somewhat surprised by this setlist.

They played three songs of of one album, then five from another then three from another.  It was like they were cycling through their discography and sampling a few songs from each before moving on.

I also don’t know anything about what songs people like best from them (in addition to “The Rat”).

They opened with three songs from You & Me, their fourth album and a bit of a more mellow enterprise. It’s interesting how intense Leithauser is as a front man considering how chill the music was.  He doesn’t do anything crazy, but he is pretty intense and he can totally belt out the lyrics.

“In the New Year” was my favorite of this trio, with some great organ sounds mid song.

Although everyone went crazy for “The Rat.”  The Walkmen are often described as post-punk and their overall output belies this label.  But this song is a stone cold classic of that ill-named genre.

And yet, the whole album isn’t like that.  Although “Savages” rocks nicely, the moody “No Christmas” doesn’t really have any drums and “138th Street” is propelled by a quietly rolling floor tom and little else.

Hamilton was very chatty during the show, telling us that the band had an apartment on 138th Street in Harlem and that’s where the song title came from.

I love the name of their first album and title song “Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone” and the song was a nice tidy rocker.

Then they moved on to the Lisbon album.  They played the Western inspired “Blue as Your Blood” and their surf song “Angela Surf City”

Hamilton told us that the guy who wrote “Another One Goes By” was in the audience that night.   They had covered the song on their A Hundred Miles Off album (their version was slower than the original).  They ended the tour of that album with “Juveniles” and everyone sang along “You’re one of us / Or one of them.”

It was pretty interesting watching Walter Martin (whom Hamilton said was his cousin (?)) play bass as he uses a pick but seems to pluck up on the strings rather than pushing down.  Martin and Peter Bauer switched between bass and keys throughout the show.  I barely saw Paul Maroon from the angle I was at (he was off to the side pretty far), but he did come to our side to play piano a few times.  I am fairly certain the piano was slightly out of tune–like an old timey bar piano that was charmingly out of tune.

Then it was back to You & Me.  Everyone had nicely settled into for the percussion heavy “Four Provinces.”  By the time they played “Canadian Girl” I assumed that the group of men near me were going to expire.  One of the loud, drunken group had proudly declared them “hosers from Tronno.”  They were pretty irritating truth be told, but they were big fans of the band and were exuberant in their excitement, which was pretty fun.  They had come all the way down to this show because it was a closer drive (and cheaper tickets) than New York.

After one more song from A Hundred Mile Off (a wildly uptempo beast of a song called “All Hands and the Cook”), they played the only song from the last album (from 2012), Heaven.  I happen to like the catchy track, which is probably the peppiest of their songs and may actually be what I thought The Walkmen sounded like overall.  The big catchy “oh oh oh oh” part at the end was a great set ender.

After a brief encore, they came back and played a song that he said he wrote waiting on a subway platform.  They ended with a song from the [White] EP and one more song from the debut.  “We’ve Been Had,” a piano based song was was in a commercial, although I didn’t recognize it and it’s vaguely circusy melody.

I didn’t come away from the show loving The Walkmen.  I probably won’t listen to them  much more than I do now, but it was a fun show.  Leithuaser is a great, engaging frontman and the songs are solid and enjoyable.

I’m glad I went.

1. Dónde Está la Playa §
2. On the Water §
3. In the New Year §
4. The Rat ⇔
5. No Christmas While I’m Talking ⇔
6. Little House of Savages ⇔
7. 138th Street ⇔
8. New Years Eve ⇔
9. Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone ♥
10. Blue as Your Blood £
11. Angela Surf City £
12. Another One Goes By (Mazarin cover) ≅
13. Juveniles £
14. Four Provinces §
15. Red Moon §
16. Canadian Girl §
17. All Hands and the Cook ≅
18. Heaven Ω
    Encore:
19. Thinking of a Dream I Had ⇔
20. Wake Up ∞
21. We’ve Been Had ♥