I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 14, 2023] Palm 

I discovered Palm by accident back in 2016 when they opened for the band Dilly Dally (who have since broken up).   About that show I wrote:

So Palm was fantastic.  An amazing band to see live (especially from so close).  The band plays noisy, complex music that has parts math-rock and parts shoegaze.  They remind me of Battles, but only in part.  The two guitarists Kasra Kurt and Eve Alpert are constantly playing different (and highly unlikely) chords or notes.  Meanwhile the bassist (Gerasimos Livitsanos) is typically playing his own patterns that somehow meld with the two and keep everything grounded.  And the drummer (Hugo Stanley) is doing complex things of his own.  It’s so hard to tell who you want to watch.

I got to see them headline a few months after that at PhilaMOCA and that was great (although apparently I was shoved aside by a slam dancer at the show).

Six years later and I hadn’t had a chance to see them again when they announced that they were calling it quits as a band.

“Palm is ending. Thank you to everyone who has supported us, to the artists we’ve shared the stage with and to all our collaborators over the past 12 years”.

Not much more was said, and not much more was said in stage either.

This was announced as their final show.  I Was pleased to get a ticket.  They announced another show, two days before this, so I was glad they didn’t change their final show–although it turns out the Tuesday show was the same set.

I didn’t love the new Palm album as much as previous ones.  They changed direction slightly and were a bit more synth heavy which I just didn’t enjoy as much for whatever reason.  But this final show was a great mix of the best new songs coupled with some amazing older ones.  And, as with everything Palm does, the music was even better when seeing it played.

“Suffer Dragon” is a 90 second noise segue on the album that actually works as a great show opener with Eve making noises on the synth while the rest of the band gets ready to launch into “Crank” from their debut which allowed all four of them to go berserk right out the gate.

“On the Sly” is one of the new songs that sounds most like the older stuff and it has some great parts to which Eve and Kasra play.

“Composite” is one of those songs where they play individual strings really fast to make a kind of jumpy, erratic melody.

“Feathers” opens with Hugo banging some metallic objects while Gerasimos played some deep bass notes on the keys.  The synth works really well on this song as a weird but cool sounding rhythm while everyone else is playing like crazy.  “Pearly” is one of those great songs in which their guitars sound more like bells.  Eve also sings a very catchy “hey!” that works as a great hook.

It was followed by “Heavy Lifting” which has the strangest part of any Palm song, they repeat, as if sipping, a musical pattern that features a very strange chord from Eve and a chiming guitar part from Kasra.  It repeats far more than you think it should, then it breaks and returns to that repeated part with slight variants.  It’s so much fun to see.

“Eager Copy” is a cool mix of mechanical guitars and drums and gentle melodic synths while “Two Toes” is incredibly catchy despite the weird lurching guitars and rhythms.  It segued into another song from their debut “Doggy Doctor.”  It’s one of the more punky sounding songs that they play, ending with a the two guitars playing a two note chime while Hugo plays a smacking drum pattern that once again sounds like the record is skipping before it spins out into a small jam.

There was woodblock on that song and on “You Are What Eats You.”

The set ended with two new songs the “single” from the alum “Parable Lickers” and the longer “Tumbleboy” which Eve played as the res of the band prepared to leave the stage.

They left for a short break and then came back with a stellar triplet of encore songs

They infectious “Walkie Talkie” with fantastic guitar back and forths, Ankles with its circular opening that seems to fall apart before the song really gets going and ending with “Dog Milk.”

The band headed toward the exit but gave a big group hug before heading off into the night.  I’m curious to see what projects they’ll undertake in the future.

Wallace Watches recorded  the whole show

 

1. Suffer Dragon ℵ
2. Crank ⇔
3. On the Sly ℵ
4. Composite ♠
5. Feathers ℵ
6. Pearly ♠
7. Heavy Lifting ♠
8. Eager Copy ℵ
9. Two Toes €
10. Doggy Doctor ⇔
11. You Are What Eats You ⇔
12. Parable Lickers ℵ
13. Tumbleboy ℵ
    encore
14. Walkie Talkie €
15. Ankles ⇔
16. Dog Milk ♠

ℵ Nicks and Grazes (2022)
♠ Rock Island (2018)
€ Shadow Expert (2017)
⇔ Trading Basics (2015)