So guess what we did this year? Not being the conventional type, after 19 years together we decided to get married. We rented a beach house in Sandbridge and had a small (< 30) collection of friends and family for a sunset ceremony on April 19th, the 19th anniversary of first date. Everything happened in a blur with just a few months between deciding to do it and the actual event, but it came together nicely and was an amazing time.
To commemorate this event, Danette's 2017 birthday song is Alvvays's "Archie, Marry Me", their "hit" single (from their 2014 self-titled debut) about an unconventional marriage. Warning: this song is an alt-pop earworm -- the strong hooks, Molly Rankin's small but precious voice, Alec O'Hanley's TJ&MCPsychocandy-era jangle-fuzz guitar, the hazy, fake-nostalgia of the video -- it all adds up to an unforgettable experience, just like Danette...
The lyrics are not a literal description of our scenario (and in fact, there is no real Archie), but they abstractly capture the essence of our relationship:
You've expressed explicitly your contempt for matrimony
You've student loans to pay and will not risk the alimony
We spend our days locked in a room content inside a bubble
And in the night time we go out and scour the streets for trouble
During the summer take me sailing out on the Atlantic
I won't set my sights on other seas, there is no need to panic
So honey take me by the hand and we can sign some papers
Forget the invitations, floral arrangements and bread makers
Too late to go out, too young to stay in
They're talking about us living in sin
We actually had printed invitations, and I'm pretty sure there were some flowers somewhere, but no bread makers were involved.
Even though you almost surely haven't heard this on the radio, the number of covers in three years clearly shows that others have fallen in love with this song as well. I provide two good examples below:
I recently found out about Angel Olsen via several people raving about her most recent LP, "My Woman", on the "Now Playing" Facebook group. Eventually I investigated the LP and her body of work in general, and now I understand the buzz. I'm not yet quite ready to review it, so in the mean time I'll just bring your attention to her via this KEXP concert from 2014 in support of her "Burn Your Fire for No Witness" LP.
This is a good performance and I enjoy it more than her 2014 solo acoustic performance on NPR's Tiny Desk Concert, but 2016's "My Woman" represents a significant progression for her. Check her out.
The picture to the left is from Herbert and Lisa at the Avett Brothers concert in Albuquerque, New Mexico 2015-02-04 (setlist). They went to the show on my recommendation and although they I think they enjoyed it, the Avett Brothers didn't resonate with them as much as they do with Danette and me. One thing they mentioned about the NM show is that the venue, the Santa Ana Star Center, was too large for a band like the Avett Brothers. Judging by their picture, it looks like their seats were pretty good, but they still felt the venue was not intimate enough for the kind of music they play. This echos our experience in the NYE 2014 show in Raleigh where we had really bad seats in the PNC Arena. Our experience almost surely would have been better if I had ordered tickets sooner, but then perhaps they should not have played in a venue where bad seats were even possible?
This brings up an interesting question: can a band grow too popular for their ideal venues? Obviously you'd prefer to see bands in the smallest possible venues. On the other hand, you can't fault a band for gaining popularity and filling (or nearly so) increasingly larger venues. But some bands' sound transposes to larger venues with less of a problem. The Avett Brothers are high energy, and they've slowly accreted band members to help them have a consistently bigger sound, but they're still not really an arena rock band, either in terms of popularity or sound. Is there an ideal venue size for an indie/folk/roots/country/bluegrass band like the Avett Brothers? David Byrne in his 2010 TED Talk (transcript) explored the relationship between venue and music, but did not really explore the idea of an optimum venue size for a particular sound.
The setlist is available for this as well, and it amounts to about an hour of music (shorter than a headliner concert). I'm not sure if there was more music and it was edited down to an hour, or if their hour simply straddled sunset (the sun appears to go down at the ~45 minute mark). Apropos to the venue size question above, note at about ~31:50 how Seth leaves the stage and tries to pump up the audience by running around the WWI style trenches that separates the band from the audience. I get that it's a large, outdoor festival, but that just doesn't seem like the best way to see the Avett Brothers.
Continuing on this theme, here is a short, five song 2015 Austin City LimitsTV show appearance where the venue is small and intimate but the audience appears sedated if not fully dead. Once again it falls to Seth to venture into the crowd and inject some life (~14:20). Perhaps it is just the nature of TV audiences to be lifeless, cf. my review of Wire's 1979 concert "On The Box".
In summary, I'm very thankful that in years past we have been able to see the Avett Brothers in the Portsmouth Pavillion, which might be the ideal size (~6500 people) in addition to its absolutely beautiful outdoor location right on the Elizabeth River. I'm also glad Herbert and Lisa got to see them even though it's not exactly their thing. So far their tour page doesn't list a return to Portsmouth, but right now there are only a few dates booked for May, June, and July so I would expect more dates to be announced soon. I'm hoping they return to the area and that we're in town for them (we missed them last year for the 2014 Power Tour). Between Michele & Chris, Joy, Marilee, and possibly some others we'll be a good chunk of the audience in what might be a perfect venue for them.
I suppose a critic could say they're derivative, but I think it would be more fair to say they're celebrating an established genre. I mean, Otis died before these guys were born, and I welcome new artists revisiting classic sounds.
I learned of them a few months ago on NPR's Morning Edition. That NPR did a feature on these guys should surprise no one. Joy hooked us up with their debut LP "Half The City" but until I find the time for a proper review, this four song live in the studio set will have to suffice.
BTW -- The KEXP Youtube channel is simply amazing; tons of good stuff there.
