I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: November 4, 2023] The Head and The Heart

My wife and I saw The Head and the Heart in 2019 and it was terrible (not the band, the crowd)

I wrote:

But holy crap, the people around me sucked so bad that they ruined the whole night.  I am writing this ten days after the show and I hate to say that I am still annoyed by them all.  …

So I had quite possibly the worst concert experience of my life at this show.  And I want to reiterate it had nothing to do with the band.  There may have been a song or two in the middle that I wasn’t too excited about, but overall, they sounded great, played some really fun songs and seemed to be really enjoying themselves.  I wouldn’t mind seeing them again to make up for this show, but I probably won’t.

So last time they came around, I decided not to see them.  But I figured they were coming to the State Theatre, how bad could the audience be?

And indeed, they weren’t too bad.  They talked a lot during Drew Holcomb, but were largely good during THATH.  The strange thing to me was how many kids there were there.  Like dozens of them.  Which is fine, it was just surprising as they’re not a notably kiddie band.  Although when I asked some parents about this, the dad said they were not offensive, which is very true.

It also turns out that they have a  few more albums that I realized.  I know their debut, Let’s Be Still and Living Mirage.  They have a fourth called Signs of Life and a brand new one called Every Shade of Blue, from which they played at least 6 songs (amazingly, no one updated the setlist for the show in New Brunswick, even though I saw them give someone the setlist.  And, impressively, not each show is exactly the same–similar but not exact.

I wasn’t that excited by the first couple of songs, but when they played “All We Every Knew” (which is from an album I didn’t think I knew at all) and the song broke into the big All 
La la la la la la, I was 100% on board singing along.  And I realized at that point that The Head and the Heart are all about big “la la” choruses that are fun to sing along to and are catchy as hell.

Singer Jonathan Russell had a weird hat on, but sounded great.  My wife and I were talking about how the band sounds different than they did on the early records.  I believe it’s because Russell now sings almost all of the lead vocal parts.  Co-lead singer Josiah Johnson left a few years ago–right after the two albums that we know best.  So maybe we’re used to his lead (I don’t know who sings lead on which songs) or that his replacement Matt Gervais (who sang lead on one song) just sounds different in general?

“Another Story” is a slower song but is very pretty (one of my wife’s favorites).  It turns out that my wife and I REALLY like Living Mirage.  But it seems like when THATH play, they focus on the new album and blow off the previous one and then fill in with the older ones.  So, when we saw them last time, there was a lot of Living Mirage.  This time there were only two songs from it.   So they played a few songs that I didn’t know.

But they followed it with one of my favorites from the debut album “Ghosts.”  I love the piano parts.  Kenny Hensley plays a great piano, but I feel like his volume might be raised and lowered as needed–sometimes it was really easy to forget he was there, which is a shame.

Tyler Williams on drums is always fun as he tries to get everyone super psyched to be there.

They followed it with the gorgeous “Let’s Be Still.”  And another from the debut “Sounds Like Hallelujah.”

The middle songs seems to change for each show, so I’m not sure what was going on in there, but they came out of the middle with a delightful Honeybee.  Then they asked if we were ready to dance and we were because they played “Missed Connection.”  They ended with “Hurts But it Goes Away,” a simple but catchy new song and “Shake”, which has a great high pitched bass line that runs through the song.   Bassist Chris Zasche was wearing a sweatshirt, shorts and a fanny pack.  Which was quite the look.

They ended with the quiet but delightful “Down in the Valley.”

The crowd loved Charity Rose Thielen, the violinist and occasional singer.  It was one of those things where she would bow a note and the crowd would go crazy.  Which is kind of weird but whatever.  Turns out I do not like the sound of her violin.  I can’t explain it but I don’t care for it.  I also don’t really like the way she sings these days.  This seems to be a thing for fans of the band, she had modified the way she sings over the years and many people don’t like the new style.  Although obviously many people do like her voice as well, so there.

The band was super friendly.  One of them talked about how they had been given pastries and cookies as gifts from fans (!) and when another fan revealed that it was her birthday, the band brought her a piece of pie.  They also called up a little girl on stage who sang along (and was quite adorable).

For the encore they came out with “Virginia,” a song I know because it was played a lot on the radio although I didn’t realize it was them.   They followed that with a fantastic “Lost in My Mind.”  They ended as they apparently always do with “Rivers and Roads.”

I enjoyed most of the set, although would have loved a few more songs from Mirage.

I am somewhat puzzled by the intensity of the fans at the show.  The Head and the Heart just don’t seem like a band you would love.  They are very good and enjoyable, but they’re pretty safe.  And maybe that’s what people like about them so much and bring their kids to the show for.

After our previous nightmare performance, I was happy that this one was trouble free.  As much as I enjoyed this show, I don’t need to see them again.  And that’s fine, too.

 

1. Every Shade of Blue Ø
2. Don’t Show Your Weakness Ø
3. All We Ever Knew ∇
4. Another Story ≅
5. Dreamer ∇
6. Tiebreaker Ø
7. Ghosts ♥
8. Let’s Be Still ≅
9. Sounds Like Hallelujah ♥
10. Winter Song
11. Honeybee ‰
12. Missed Connection ‰
13. Hurts (But It Goes Away) Ø
14. Rhythm & Blues ∇
15. Shake ≅
16. Down in the Valley ♥
    Encore:
17. Virginia (Wind in the Night) Ø
18. Lost in My Mind ♥ (with Drew Holcomb)
19. Rivers and Roads ♥

Ø Every Shade of Blue (2022)
‰ Living Mirage (2019)
∇ Signs of Light (2016)
≅ Let’s Be Still (2013)
♥ The Head and the Heart (2011)