The Album Leaf – Live at The El Rey
4 min read
Post-rock music is an acquired taste. The synthesizers and lack of lyrics is not every person’s cup of tea. Though The Album Leaf has been around for more than a decade, I only became a fan after hearing their latest album, A Chorus of Storytellers. I was obsessed with ska back in 1999, when Jimmy Lavelle first performed under the guise of The Album Leaf. If a group didn’t have several trumpets, a saxaphone, or the words “Bosstones” or “Five Iron” in their band name, I wasn’t interested. However, A Chorus of Storytellers – Lavelle’s latest effort that was released February 2 on SubPop – grabbed my attention, and I was eager to see them live last Saturday at The El Rey Theatre.
LA folk rock band Sea Wolf opened for Lavelle, with an upbeat set that got the hipster crowd going. Sea Wolf was a blast to watch — everyone from lead singer Alex Church to keyboardist Lisa Fendelander danced continuously with their own music, with grins on their faces. It’s always a treat to watch musicians who love what they do, and this was the case with Sea Wolf.
Lavelle started The Album Leaf’s set with “Perro,” “Blank Pages,” and “There is a Wind,” which are the first three tracks on Storytellers. They were perfect songs to start with, as they show the diversity that weaves throughout the latest album. While “Perro” is very low-fi and a bit eery, “Blank Pages” is heavy on the synths, and sounds a bit what elevator muzak would sound like to a person during an acid trip. “There is a Wind” keeps the momentum going and is a bit more upbeat, and also focuses more on vocals, which Lavelle has incorporated on several of his more recent albums. The Album Leaf purists tend to dismiss the songs that include lyrics but I think it adds a new – and subtle – dimension to Lavelle’s work. In “There is a Wind,” Lavelle expresses his frustration with life moving too quickly, with lyrics like “There’s a wind behind everyone that takes us through our lives/I wish I could have stayed/but this wind takes us away…”
Storytellers is the first album which Lavelle recorded with his live band. The result is a much more rich sound than his previous efforts, though I was curious as to how that would translate live. Fortunately, Lavelle made the brilliant decision of employing a string quartet from San Francisco’s Magik*Magik Orchestra to provide an even more complex sound for the El Rey audience. The quartet added brilliant – and again, subtle – textures to many of the songs. Subtlety is key with post-rock music, as it could be easy for synthesizers and other instruments to overpower a song. However, Lavelle and his band are masters at their craft and showed clear restraint, both on the album and during their show.
Lavelle played a good mix of songs – both upbeat and mellow, instrumental and with vocals – and the packed crowd was focused on the stage and incredibly engaged. The show definitely required the audience member to use more than just the sense of hearing. It was incredible to watch each band member work their magic (or magik, in some cases). Matthew Resovich, for instance, would frequently move from violin to synths to glockenspiel, and rocked each instrument perfectly.
Lavelle interacted very little with the audience in between sets and was incredibly focused during each song. He relaxed a bit during the encore set, as he joked around with the audience and took some pictures of the crowd with his phone. The band started with “Always For You,” off their album Into The Blue Again. The crowd erupted in applause as the first notes were played. This is a rare love song from the band, and appropriately played, as the show was the night before Valentines Day. Their last song was “Tied Knots,” the last track on Storytellers which, like the opening number “Perro”, is a mellow instrumental number and a perfect song to close the night with. Smoke and fog were released during “Tied Knots,” again giving the crowd a sensory experience.
I’m not sure how one would fare at one of their shows without being a fan of The Album Leaf, but it didn’t matter on Saturday. Every member of the audience seemed to be a connoisseur of all things Lavelle, and it made the show even more enjoyable. Though I appreciated the musical talent of every member on stage (including trumpet player Brad Lee, thus satisfying the inner ska lover in me), many of the songs seemed more appropriate as background music. But I was definitely in the minority at that show, as numerous fans left the El Rey muttering that this was “the best” show they’d seen in a while. Which goes back to what was previously stated: Post-rock music is not for everyone. But for fans of the genre, The Album Leaf will never disappoint.
