It’s tough to feel at home at an unfamiliar venue, seeing relatively unfamiliar bands, so I was pretty pleasantly surprised by my first experience at Baby’s All Right for Quilt’s Nov 15 show. The new Williamsburg spot was the ideal setting for the dynamic show—a swanky place, but without any sense of pretense. Quilt had two highly disparate openers (Mexican Summer labelmates Happy Jawbone Family Band and newcomers LODRO) but none of the three performances that night felt out of place, and neither did I.
Happy Jawbone Family Band kicked off the show at 9 p.m. sharp on a stage swathed in bright blue lighting that made the space feel something like an aquarium. They drew in a sizable crowd for an opening band, emanating an energy akin to a bunch of weirdos gathering amongst their own. They commented that “Quilt makes us look like a bunch of slobs every night,” which turned out to be a very true statement but in the best possible way. The jangling “Everybody Knows About Daddy,” for example, from their recent eponymous release, sounds a little like Spoon’s “The Underdog” went on a mushroom trip and got all loosey goosey, a quality that was accentuated in the song’s live form. The very sunny “D-R-E-A-M-I-N,” on the other hand, infused the show with a Wavves-y, West Coast feel. Their whole set was enjoyably laid back.
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Following Happy Jawbone was brand new Brooklyn outfit LODRO, a self-described “neo noir punk” trio from Brooklyn. They have a very dense sound—bass-heavy and sinister—that occupied the entire room. The second number in their set, “Big Sleep For Alice,” had the most kick, but their music lurks as much as it stomps. The band’s main allure came from bassist/vocalist Lesley Hann, formerly of Friends, who, I feel, should seriously consider dressing up as Cruella de Vil for Halloween next year. She completely embodied the gritty and cooly ominous sounds of her band. The guitarist, meanwhile, slumped his way through the entire set, laying heavy on the distortion.
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By the time Quilt came on, the room was rather packed. They started out a bit rocky with some technical difficulties, their vocals drowned by the crisp, surfy sound of their guitars, but they quickly squared it out and dove into their set. “Cowboys in the Void,” from Quilt’s 2011 eponymous debut, was my personal favorite of the night. The psych-y, overlapping vocals at the start of the song made for a perfect display of Quilt’s ability to harmonize as well as any church choir, and the track’s midway shift from drowsy to peppy showcased the band’s range—they can shred just as much as they can soothe.
But, for the most part, they soothe, their dulcet harmonies taking center stage over the languid instrumentation, particularly in tracks like “Penobska Oakwalk” and the new “Arctic Shark.” The band swayed gently and happily with their instruments, and the audience followed. I got the sense that the entire show was a scenic drive and everyone was just enjoying the views. Live, Quilt’s music seemed to sound a lot more breezy and less contemplative, but it might have been the effects of having such an engaged and exuberant crowd. At the end of the night, everyone left with a pleasantly dazed look on their faces, a pretty good sign of a successful show.
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