Bishop Allen - Click Click Click Click [alt link] (download or die!)
Buy the Broken String at Bishop Allen's website

Labels: Bishop Allen, music video

I told you a surprise was coming, and this is it. The interview occurred over a sequence of e-mails - I had hoped that would be easier for Justin to do while Bishop Allen finished its summer tour, but the opposite turned out to be true.

Some background: Bishop Allen began with Justin Rice and Christian Rudder’s friendship at Harvard, and the band is named after the street they lived on there, Bishop Allen Drive. After college, Justin and Christian moved to New York City (where they are currently based out of), recording their debut album Charm School (2003) after recording it themselves. In 2006 they self-released an EP every month, and this year Bishop Allen signed to Dead Oceans. In July, the band released an album mostly made up of songs from the EP series called the Broken String. Justin informed me that he, Cully, and Giorgio are Texas natives, all from different cities; Darbie is from New Jersey and Christian is from Cleveland, Ohio (yeah Ohio!) but has also lived in Mexico City and Arkansas. Bishop Allen’s current line-up is its third, but this group has been together since at least the beginning of the 2006 EP series.

TGH: What kind of music did you grow up listening to?

Justin: I grew up listening to all kinds of music. I remember my Dad standing in front of the mirror shaving, belting out Otis Redding songs loud as an opera singer. I lived on the Led Zeppelin box set when it first came out, and I found an R.E.M. record, Eponymous, when I was in fifth grade. In high school, I started listening to Fugazi, and, from there, I moved to Minor Threat and all things Dischord Records-related. When I met Christian, it was right around Halloween, and he was in a one-night-only Misfits cover band. He had carved "Misfits" in his dorm-room door. We were college radio station DJs together. We did a show at three in the morning, playing all kinds of obscure punk records. The Clash, sure, but also the Dils, the Dickies, Eater, The Sick Things. The first underground pop record I fell in love with was Night Club by the Yummy Fur. I walked around singing to myself in a Scottish accent for a year.

TGH: I know your songwriting process with Christian Rudder is innately collaborative but that one could roughly say that, of the two of you, you’re the lyricist. What would you say your half of the process is like?

Justin: Not every song evolves the same way. Some arrive pretty well formed; others we build piece by piece. In general, the lyrics begin with a simple experience or observation, with something I find strangely compelling. "Chinatown Bus," for instance, started when I saw a butcher's knives in Shanghai whose handles hand worn into permanent hand prints. "The Monitor" started when I realized that the Continental Ironworks, where shipwrights clad the U.S.S. Monitor in armor, was a block from my apartment. I then try to figure out why that experience or observation interests me. It's kind of like writing an essay because it's about unraveling a thought to understand its constituent parts. It's also kind of like doing a crossword because the parameters defined by melody, rhyme, and meter tend to be fairly definite, and so I spend a lot of time trying to find the right word or phrase. It takes a while to finish the words to a song, and a lot of it is slogging through possibilities. There is one thing that I think is important to me: I need to write something every day.

TGH: What did you do work-wise before you started Bishop Allen? “Middle Management” would indicate a certain familiarity with white-collar office jobs. I remember reading that Christian was involved with the company that came to make spark notes somehow.

Justin: Christian wrote pretty much everything on thespark.com, which was a Truly funny website. He also helped design all the tests you could take -- personality profilers and whatnot -- which meant a lot of time in an office working out back-end kinks in fairly complicated programs. In the first six months after graduating from college, I worked seven jobs, all at websites, all copy editing. The internet boom was about to bust, and everyone I knew worked in a weird office somewhere. Most everyone I know could see through the ugly optimism that whitewashed the workplace. Unlike thespark, which was actually wonderful, and which Barnes and Noble ending up buying out, everywhere I worked, and everywhere most everyone I knew worked, was clearly doomed to failure. In the end, I landed a job working for Errol Morris, an amazing documentary filmmaker, which eventually morphed into a job as a one-man, traveling-to-find-random-people-for-commercials kind of thing, which I still do a bit to this day.

TGH: Songs such as “Like Castanets” and “The Chinatown Bus” would indicate you’ve traveled a bit as well. Any influences there?

Justin: We've played all over the U.S. a bunch of times, and we're about to do another lap with John Vanderslice in September and October. We've also played in Sweden, and we're going to Europe in November. I also travel alone a lot, which is a good thing to do if you're trying to write songs. When I'm in an unfamiliar place and there's no one to talk to, the voice in my head starts to chatter incessantly, and writing things down is one of the only ways to deal with the odd combination of isolation and internal verbal torrent. "Like Castanets" is about a trip I took to Santiago, Chile for a film festival. I've worked on a lot of TV commercials doing research and "real people" casting for a production company, and I ended up wandering around all over with a video camera talking to strangers. I've been to Tokyo, Sydney, the Moroccan desert, and the West Texas oil fields. Once, on a flight from Paris to Shanghai, two stowaways fell from the wheel wells when the landing gear dropped. I read about it in the paper the next day. They fell through a woman's roof while she was cooking breakfast for her family. They were frozen solid.

TGH: Historical events seem to figure prominently into a lot of your songs, “The Same Fire,” “Don Christopher,” and “Abe Lincoln” being fairly obvious ones.

Justin: I think history's pretty interesting. I especially like it when I can superimpose some historical picture over the present. You can stand in the Lower East Side and picture Bowery B'hoys and Dead Rabbits running blind tigers in old Five Points while some dirty Tammany Hall politician delivers a sack of money to a back-room brothel for Boss Tweed. I don't care as much about historical accuracy as I do about historical imagination. There are a lot of great colors in history, and I've always liked digging in the archives. "Don Christopher," for instance, was inspired by the introduction to Frankenstein, where Mary Shelley mentions, while describing how she wrote the book on something like a dare, "the familiar story of Columbus and his egg." I had never heard the story of Columbus and his egg, but I liked the sound of it, so I looked it up.

Bishop Allen - The History of Excuses
(this song is the one that references Boss Tweed)

TGH: How did you pick which songs from the EPs to put on the album? Did you have any unifying idea you used to pick which songs to put on?

Justin: We started with the songs we liked best. Then we picked songs we thought we could change and grow with a little more time in the studio. Then we filled in with songs that we thought would round out the record. At the beginning of recording the album, we were working with sixteen songs, which we winnowed away based on how things were sounding. Recording is a process of making millions of minute decisions. They all add up to make a record, but it's hard to account for them in an overall way.

TGH: You went into the studio to essentially re-record songs fans already had heard and knew. Did you have any specific vision of how you wanted to change and improve those songs? How successful do you feel you were with re-envisioning the songs that made it onto the Broken String? Which song on the Broken String would you say is your favorite, in terms of the recording?

Justin: Re-recording songs was much harder than we thought it would be. Once we decided to sign to a record label, we knew we needed to make something that they could put out, promote, and get into stores. The lead time for a full-length tends to be around six months. They have to get the gears turning, and there are tons of logistics to work out so that everything happens all at once. So we finished the Broken String in March, just two months after the last EP. Though we thought about writing new songs, we didn't really have the time. Also, we wanted to try to take some of what we had been working on and give it a new depth and clarity. We wanted things to feel different -- we're a band that enjoys experimenting, not a band that wants to do the same thing over and over -- and so we worked hard to dress the songs up, and, in many cases, to rethink them entirely.

I like "The Monitor," "Chinatown Bus," and "Flight 180" best. The drumming has a lot more thunder, for one thing. There are higher highs and lower lows. They feel more musical. I don't think it's ever as rewarding to re-record songs as it is to write new songs, but I think it was good to give some of the EP songs their due.

(previous post on "The Monitor")

TGH: How do you feel your music has changed since Charm School?

Justin: I hope we've gotten better at making songs that are diverse and dynamic, and that we've improved our ability to convey interesting ideas both lyrically and musically. It's hard for me to think about Charm School, or about anything we've recorded for that matter, in any clear-headed way, and so it's hard for me to make comparisons. We wrote those songs in 2002 and 2003, and my life felt very different at that point. I barely remember most of it. Once we finished that record, we had a really hard time writing songs again, and we stalled for almost two years. That won't happen again. Because we've learned how to keep writing no matter what.

TGH: Do you know what you’re going to do after the tour is over? Do you have any sort of mental calendar for your next album, or are you taking the approach of working on some songs and seeing what happens?

Justin: Every moment of the next six months is planned, which is strange and comforting. We tour the U.S. with John Vanderslice in September and October. November and December, we tour Europe. January, I'm acting in a new movie. February and March, we record our next full-length. After that, we tour the U.S. again. Between now and the Vanderslice tour, we work on new songs every day.

TGH: Are Cully, Giorgio, and Darbie going to stay with you guys? I know Cully and Giorgio are planning to go into the studio to record another album as 1986 after you finish your tour.

Justin: We hope Cully, Giorgio, and Darbie stay with us. They're included in all of our upcoming plans, and we love playing with them. Cully and Giorgio have a wonderful band called 1986, and so we're working to make time for both bands to get things done. So far, so good.

1986 - Better When You're Stoned

TGH: You’ve been touring with Page France and the Teeth this summer. How’s that been?

Justin: The tour was amazing. When you see a band night after night, you really get to know their songs intimately. And, when the bands are as good as Page France and the Teeth, you learn a lot. It was really helpful to see how their minds work, and they continue to inspire us as we sit down to work on new songs. Unfortunately, Page France's van broke down, and they spent a week outside Phoenix waiting for the right part, the computer, to come in, so they missed San Francisco, LA, and Portland. When they caught up with us again, it was a huge relief, like when your broken arm heals and they finally take off your cast. Also note: there's a song on the new Teeth record, "The Coolest Kid in School," that is my favorite song in the world right now.

The Teeth -The Coolest Kid in School
The Teeth's Website/Myspace
(previous post on Bishop Allen, Page France, and The Teeth @ the Black Cat)

TGH: If you had to pick between only touring or only writing songs and recording and the studio, which one would you pick? Which do you like better? How do they interact for you?

Justin: I'd pick writing and recording. It's a compulsion, chasing the perfect song, and it's also what makes me remember to get out of bed. It's vital to me to keep learning, to keep inventing and re-inventing what we do. But I do love touring, and I think it's a necessary part of the process.

When you're recording, you're shut away with no outside contact, and you lose track of the audience. It starts to feel like you're playing guitar alone in your tiny room, and it's easy to feel like giving up. Going on tour, we get to see people react to the songs we make, and it's immediately gratifying.

TGH: What made you decide to sign to Dead Oceans?

Justin: They approached us with a fair offer, and their ideas and aspirations made a lot of sense. We were very cautious. We talked with them over email, on the phone, and in person, and realized, after asking a million questions, that they know what they are doing, and that they can do a better job of selling things than we can. We also like them personally, which is a very big deal for us. Now we're free to focus more of our energy on making music.

TGH: Being often termed a “blog band,” how do you feel like that's translated when you tour and interact with fans?

Justin: We've forged a strange path, mostly without any kind of institutional support, and blogs have helped immeasurably. They tend to be written by people who care passionately about music, and they're not on corporate lock-down like so much mainstream press. I like how democratic they make things. When we were making the EPs, we focused all of our attention on making songs, and almost none on promotion. But bloggers sought out the songs each month, and, when they found ones they liked, made some small fraction of the world aware of what we were doing. The music we make is, to a large degree, about connection, and blogs allow a direct interaction between us and anyone who cares to listen by simply by posting songs.

In a magazine, you can read about a band and imagine what they might sound like. On a blog, you can listen to the music unmediated and judge for yourself.

TGH: Do you have a favorite song you’ve recorded?

Justin: Honestly, I have no idea. I just can't listen to our records. I like playing "Like Castanets" best, especially now that my hand calloused up and I don't rip my fingers to shreds.

TGH: What music have you been listening to lately? Are there any recent releases you particularly like? What are your (and Christian’s, I’m guessing you’d know) favorite bands and albums? I’m hazarding a guess here [my guess was right, Justin was a comparative literature major in college], but also favorite poets and poems? [also books]

Justin: The Teeth record, like I said, has some of my favorite songs right now. I love the Fiery Furnaces. I've listened to Of Montreal a lot over the last few months. The Zookeeper record that comes out soon. Warhorse favorites? The first eight Dylan records. I think Christian's pick is Blonde on Blonde, but I'm a Highway 61 Revisited man. The Velvet Underground box set, pretty much through and through. The Springsteen record Nebraska (which we just listened to driving through Nebraska). Otis Redding, anything and everything. I'm finally catching up with the deeper cuts in the Beatles catalogue, but Christian knows those backwards and forwards.

Poets: I can be fickle and demanding, and no one writes good poems all the time. Anne Sexton. Charles Simic. Baudelaire. Rimbaud. Robert Penn Warren. I'll go for both William Carlos Williams and T.S. Eliot, even though one was pitted against the other back in the day. Christian got deep into the three volume history of the Civil War by Shelby Foote. He read it a while ago, but started it again on this last tour. I can't think of a book I've read twice.

.........THE END

Bishop Allen - Rain [alt link] (The Broken String)
Bishop Allen - Busted Heart (Charm School)
Tour Dates with John Vanderslice
Buy The Broken String and 2006's EP series
Bishop Allen's Website/Myspace

Now, I know you all read this interview and now want to get your hands on a copy of the album version of "Like Castanets", "The Chinatown Bus", "The Monitor", and others. I thought about asking permission to post one of them, and then I realized there's a way you can get it for free that I'm perfectly willing to encourage.

Get a FREE trial subscription to eMusic, and you get 25 free downloads, and mp3s with no restrictions on them (unlike iTunes). Did I mention that it's free? I have an eMusic subscription and love it.

Labels: Bishop Allen, interview

I was a little disappointed the first time I listened to the Broken String, the second time, the third time. The preview I wrote in June was after the fourth time I'd listened to it straight through. It was around the sixth time that I stopped judging the album and began to simply enjoy it (I'm actually embarrassed to be admitting this, but I do this type of intense listening with virtually all the music I post on). Recently I listened Charm School a few times again, then all of 2006's EPs in order. I don't know quite what it is that I've decided, but this is a try.

Bishop Allen's March EP included a track called the "the Monitor" about an old battleship, where Justin Rice (or his "narrator") imagines the battles fought by the ship and considers his isolation from the men at the ironworks, who work on and don't care. June's EP featured a song about the same Ironworks burning down called "The Same Fire." And neither song was really about an Ironworks.

"The Monitor" became the source of the album title the Broken String:

"It’s stunning to know I’ve survived
But I’m not sure what I’m fighting for anymore
And when I break another string
And continue to sing
Is that courage? I’m not sure."

Charm School has been described by its creators as an album about lonely insomniacs who wander around New York City at night. In interviews Justice Rice, Bishop Allen's lyricist, has talked about Charm School as having a narrator; if this is the case, then before 2006's EP series there was never a chance to really get into the narrator's head, to see the world through his eyes. Something changed in January, and I don't know what it was. If there's anything I can say for certain about the Broken String it's that its attempt to condense 12 months' worth of songs into a single album feels shallow, like skipping rocks over the surface of a deep body of water. But some of those rocks are going to sink, damn it. Christian Rudder and Justin Rice's work deserves more fans.

Bishop Allen - The Monitor (March EP)
Bishop Allen - The Same Fire (June EP)
Bishop Allen - Middle Management (The Broken String)
Buy the Broken String and 2006's EPs

Labels: Bishop Allen, song piece

Personally, I find this one pretty tough. I've bought/am buying two out of the three, I couldn't decide. And now I'm going to go broke. Thoughts, anyone?

Repost: Bishop Allen - Rain (post)
Repost: John Vanderslice - White Dove (post)
Tegan and Sara - Back in your head

Buy Emerald City or The Con or The Broken String

Labels: Bishop Allen, John Vanderslice, Tegan and Sara

It's been a long time since I've been to concert where I've been as impressed by the openers as I was at the Bishop Allen show on Sunday. Right now the only comparable example I can think of is when I saw Islands open for Metric 2 years ago and I was so completely blown away by Islands that Metric seemed a bit disappointing by comparison. Though, as always, Bishop Allen were great, but the blown-away factor already happened the first time I saw them; every show after the first time you see a band live is a little like listening a favorite song on repeat. Jason (who's been guest-blogging lately) was going to come too, but had a car crisis and ditched us at the last minute. I went with an Oberlin friend and we still had a great time.
Bishop Allen, Page France, and the Teeth will be touring together for the next month, more dates here.

The Teeth put on one of the most energetic nothing-but-Rock-&-Roll shows I've seen in a while, with Peter & Aaron (I think) sharing vocals and much crazy dancing and instrument-playing. The band's drummer seemed to be hanging out in the back thinking to himself, "yeah, I'm the non-nut in this band." If you're seeing BA in the near future, don't be one of those jerks who misses the opening bands, because missing the Teeth when you've already paid for that ticket is a crime. Now I have to spend money to buy their album, damn it. I'm going to go broke soon.
(I didn't take very many photos of the Teeth, and all the ones I took were pretty bad, the photo is from their myspace)

The Teeth - Shoulderblade
The Teeth - It's Not Funny
Buy You're My Lover Now (released in May)
The Teeth's Website/Myspace
Some older live sets from the Teeth here and here, which are available for download
Page France were up next in their full cuteness, though I might be talking specifically about Michael Nau, with his chirpy voice and all. Their live sound rocked way more than I expected, I was the kid obnoxiously dancing on the far right of the stage. Not to mention that I made an exception to my dislike of that one random girl that lots of indie pop bands seem to have (who inevitably wears the best of female hipster dress, sings, and plays keyboard, the xylophone, maybe a tambourine or maracas) for Whitney McGraw, who was great and actually needed to be there. I wouldn't mention this, except I might be implying something about a different band. Tell me if you figure it out.
(Please credit me for the photo if you use it)

Page France - Here's A Telephone
Repost: Page France - The Ruby Ring Man

Buy ...and the Family Telephone
Page France's Website/Myspace
Up next was Bishop Allen. I had to leave a bit early (all I missed was a Creedence Clearwater Revival cover, I've been told) to catch the metro before it closed, so I didn't have to the chance to steal a copy of the set list. As usual, Bishop Allen put on a great show. Much of the audience didn't seem very familiar with this year's EPs, and "Choose Again" from the Broken String was greeted by relative quiet, possibly surprise. Still, for a crowd of indie kids, Bishop Allen got people dancing. Justin Rice's on-stage dancing is always fun to watch, not to mention the way he stares out into the audience looking a little like a fawn stricken by the heat of the stage lights (no deer, no headlights, no road-slaughter), ever the misunderstood poet. Christian Rudder (who rocks my socks) is cool enough to sell merchandise himself, which I find a little nerve-wracking because you go up to buy stuff and it's him, not some random person. I didn't have to deal with this at the Charlottesville show in March, the band was running late, but at the Black Cat it freaked me out a bit. Stay put, more BA-related fun is coming.
(more photos I took at the show here, please give me credit if you use them)

Bishop Allen - Click Click Click Click (The Broken String)
Bishop Allen - The Same Fire (June EP)

My review of the Broken String
Buy The Broken String (officially released today)
Bishop Allen's Website/Myspace

I got an e-mail last night from Bishop Allen's current bassist, Giorgio, so it's time for a plug. He and BA's drummer Ruddy are in a band called 1986, they released an album called Nihilism is Nothing To Worry About last year and are about to go record another one. I've been listening to bits and pieces of the record, it's a lot of fun.
(the photo is from 1986's myspace)

1986 - Better When You're Stoned (the song could be about my ex, easily. or me, sometimes.)
Buy Nihilism is Nothing to Worry About
1986's Myspace

Labels: 1986, Bishop Allen, concert, page france, the teeth

You can get your digital copy of the Broken String today (even though the album isn't officially out until July 24th) if you buy it now. If you haven't heard this year's EPs you absolutely have to buy this album.

My preview of the Broken String from a week or two ago.

Some upcoming tour dates (with Page France and the Teeth):
July 20 - New York, NY
July 21 - Philadelphia, PA
July 22 - Washington, DC
July 23 - Chapel Hill, NC
July 24 - Atlanta, GA
(more here)

Bishop Allen - Rain (The Broken String)
Bishop Allen - Don Christopher (November EP)

Labels: Bishop Allen

Bishop Allen is often pegged as a "blog band", and the shoe fits - no "if" involved. So here's the problem: Bishop Allen released a well-documented series of monthly EPs in 2006, and now have an album coming out on July 24th that's primarily composed of revamped versions of songs already released on the EPs. The versions of most of the tracks Bishop Allen devotees like myself (ahem, see Last.fm) have come to love tend to have a minimalist more than lo-fi feel to them, and versions of these tracks on The Broken String are meant to be a bit more sophisticated.

The resulting album is something of a mixed blessing. With "Rain" and "Butterfly Nets" I'd argue the album versions of the songs are a significant improvement from the EP versions ("The Flood" on August's EP being the live version of "Rain"). "Middle Management" (posted yesterday on You Ain't No Picasso) and "Choose Again", of which only live versions existed prior to the recording of the Broken String, are both additions to the band's catalog.

However, in some cases the newer versions of songs are by no means better. Of all the tracks on the album, "Corazon" provides the clearest example of how more complex instrumentation can take away from a song's charm rather than add to it. The first 40 seconds of the album version are simply painful, and by the time Justin Rice utters the word "Corazon" I found myself thinking that I felt a good deal more sympathy for the piano before I heard what it actually sounded like. Without the introduction (those 40 seconds) the song would have been a perfect acceptable re-interpretation of the original.

Nowhere else on the album are the changes so blatantly damaging or is the new recording not on par with (or better than) the old one. Even so, the Broken String still loses the expectations game for fairly obviously reasons - most of the material isn't new and the album's versions of songs don't blow you away. Is there a lesson to be learned here? Yes, but...

I'd argue the ultimate test of any album is this: Would I buy it? Would I tell my friends to buy it? Would I buy it for them?
The Answers: Yes, yes, and yes.

Buy Bishop Allen albums, EPs; no information on how to pre-order The Broken String yet, it's out July 24th
Tour dates w/ Page France and the Teeth (DC on July 22 and Dayton, OH on Aug 11)

Bishop Allen - Like Castanets (file removed by request)
Bishop Allen - Rain (The Broken String)
Bishop Allen - Middle Management (The Broken String) at You Ain't No Picasso
Bishop Allen - I Get Along (December EP)

Labels: Bishop Allen, review

After a year's worth of great EP's, we're finally going to get it.
It's called The Broken String, it's out July 24th, and it's primarily composed of re-recorded songs from this year's EP series. Thanks, YANP.

Now...I'm a little disappointed, because I was expecting more than one new song on the album, seeing as I've made some effort to collect all this year's EPs.

At least John Collins talked to NME about the upcoming New Pornographers' album, Challengers, while they were at Coachella.

Bishop Allen - Corazon

Labels: Bishop Allen

I've been a Say Hi To Your Mom fan since I first heard them in 2002 with the track, "The Fritz," and admittedly, I haven't liked what I've heard of their new album, Impeccable Blahs (and its predecessor, Ferocious Mopes) as much as I liked Numbers and Mumbles. Sorry?

Seeing them live, I was expecting a certain amount of inherent nerdy-ness/awkwardness, and Eric Elbogen very clearly provided. After every number, he would mumble "Thank you" into the microphone, and his bobbing up and down during their oh-so-slightly more danceable numbers was entirely adorable. (Not that he was kind enough to name any of his tour-mates)
However, it was pretty clear from the room's reaction (we were congratulated for clustering in front of the stage?) that the number of people who knew the band's work was pretty low. As someone who kind of did, I came quickly to the realization that the reason I hadn't liked the band's more recent work as much was that it was based more on a stronger live sound, not separate from Elbogen's recorded sound. If that didn't make any sense, basically I just need to give Say Hi To Your Mom's new stuff a second listen. But to generalize, the band was somewhat mediocre live.
Final comment: Seriously, the Bio on the band's website is getting old.

Say Hi To Your Mom - Your Brains vs. My Tractorbeam
Say Hi To Your Mom - Snowcones and Puppies

Buy Impeccable Blahs
Say Hi To Your Mom's Website / Myspace

+/-, also known as Plus/Minus, was up next. For some reason (I guess it was their use of sampling in "Let's Build A Fire") I was expecting something a little more sophisticated than your standard guitar/vocals (2 guitars, to be precise) + bass + drums (+ synthesizer) line-up. Oh well. The band did a good job replicating its recorded sound while still getting people to dance. Though I have to say, I wasn't so impressed by the pretentious vibe. It didn't help that their (guest?) guitarist was chewing gum and blowing bubbles the entire show. I'm thinking +/- wasn't a particularly good choice to tour with Bishop Allen?

Plus/Minus - One Day You'll Be There

Buy Let's Build A Fire
Plus/Minus's Website/Myspace

Finally, Bishop Allen arrived on stage to begin setting up as I used my position at the left (audience's perspective) end of the stage to watch. After some discussion with the guy on soundboard, the show began, reaching out until the band appearance merely a joyful explosion of noise. Justin Rice was a great source of entertainment throughout the show, looking entirely serious as he used his guitar strap to hide his acoustic guitar behind his back as he sang, and once even doing an emo-band style jump in the air, all while sweating profusely. Christian Rudder was quite the contrast to Rice, smiling good-naturedly and pulling out his ukulele for two numbers (and he smiled at me!).

During "Flight 180" Justin began to slow-dance with the nameless fellow (touring) band mate (Update: Darbie) playing what I think was a metallophone. "Click Click Click Click" was introduced as a song about meeting new people, "The Same Fire" was turned into a rather intense dance number, and "Little Black Ache" became a sing-a-long, with the audience shouting, "What you got?" Somewhere in the middle of the show, I started to become embarrassed by my knowledge of all the lyrics....

After a quiet rendition of "Butterfly Nets," the band disappeared, apparently to decide what songs they would play last. My request of "Things Are What You Make Of Them" was granted (yes, I know they probably would have played it no matter what), along with another song which has now slipped my mind. The (guest?) guitarist and drummer from +/- came to join Bishop Allen with maracas. Eric Elbogen also spent most of the set on the left side of the stage doing a dance that most closely resembled jumping up and down. Again, adorable.

Bishop Allen - Click Click Click Click (July EP)
Bishop Allen - Things Are What You Make of Them (Charm School)
Bishop Allen - Like Castanets (September EP)
Bishop Allen - Little Black Ache(Charm School)
Bishop Allen - The Same Fire (June EP)

Bishop Allen's Website/Myspace
Buy Charm School / 2006 EP series

I don't have any photos of the concert, but if you do, please send me an e-mail and I'll be glad to post them!

Labels: +/-, Bishop Allen, concert, Say Hi To Your Mom