Saturday night is alright for Kiley. It was probably one of the best performances I've seen at Webster Hall, as superstars in the making Rilo Kiley showed why they are one of the most under-rated bands in music. Sure, they cashed in with a major label record deal and this will be smallest show they'll play for now, but the band played a near-perfect set of old tunes and dynamic new material from what could be their best album, Under the Blacklight.
The setlist:
- It's a Hit
- Close Call
- Portions for Foxes
- Paint's Peeling
- Breakin' Up
- Dreamworld
- The Moneymaker
- Wires and Waves
- Ripcord
- With Arms Outstretched
- A Man/Me/Then Jim
- Silver Lining
- I Never
- Smoke Detector/15
- Rise Up With Fists
- Spectacular Views
- Encore: Give A Little Love
- Does He Love You?
The running joke with me for a while was that it took me years to see Rilo Kiley live. When ever they played, I was either on vacation or had other obligations. I had to see the open for Coldplay in 2005 at MSG to get over the barricade. Thus, on Saturday, I believe I caught them at the right time. They at an interesting crossroads musically and career wise.
With the fantastic new album, the show was just one spectacular song after another, with the always enchanting J. Lew showing why the girls listen to her and the guys want to with her. With her shimmering outfit, bright red hair and voice that cut a dagger threw your heart, I hung every word. It's very much the same feeling I had when I caught her solo show at Town Hall.
While Webster Hall can be a dicey sounding room where the vocals never to be muffled, it helps that everyone knows the lyrics and can understand what they singing. Since this new album is a bigger, ambitious affair, it perfectly suited this mid-size room. Enjoy it now, because they're playing big rooms the next time around.
As you see in the setlist, they mainly focused on Blacklight that would please their new fans and delved into More Adventurous and The Execution of All Things to satisfy their older fans. Seeing the new material convinced me that this new album is what they've been working towards since their 2001 debut, Take-Offs and Landings. When you look at them now, they're dressed rather glammy and sophisticated and their new music reflects that.
The big fun was throwing in a different take of Jenny's solo song from Rabbit Fur Coat, Rise Up With Fists. Also, Blake celebrated a birthday, which the whole room knew because a group of fans held a Happy Birthday banner. It prompted him to say, "I see you man. We're should hang out at Red Lobster or something."
For me, any time a hot chick singer comes over and looks at me, it's is worth any price of admission. Hand to God, Lewis came over to me sing a few lines of "Give a Little Love" to me. I could only have some sort of puppy dog look on my face and tried not to freak out. I have a funny a little story about seeing her before the show at the end of this section.
You have probably read in every review or story on them that Blacklight is a semi-ode to the mid-70s Laurel Canyon/Fleetwood Mac sound. Blake and Jenny use to be an item and now they are not, so the parallels are there. Since Lewis became a break-out solo artist, I tend to look at her as sort of a Linda Ronstadt type, because she can straddle rock and country effortlessly. I'm big admirer of 70s singer-songwriter era music, so I'm gravitating and accepting the new Rilo Kiley, who are embracing their new rock star status.
I think it's more interesting how the band has developed musically. They started out as this little dinky indie rock band founded by two child actors. Their music was cutsy, endearing and straight up indie sounding. Gradually they started to sounded more full and Sennett and Lewis became better songwriters. When New Adventures came out, you can tell Lewis's voice was becoming stronger while she was maturing as a performer.
Today, she's the primary songwriter and singer. It's ironic that my favorite song on the new album is "Dreamworld" the track that Blake wrote and sings lead on. It's the "make Blake happy song". The album as a whole is a brisk 37 minutes of retro-70s tunes that's more entrenched in the A.M. Gold/L.A. sound. It's a damn near-perfect album -- every song is keeper.
The new major label/rock start look and feel of Rilo Kiley suits them very well. Whether the band is here to stay is another question, with Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett (who's name sounds like an 30s era movie producer/mogul) both having outside projects and ambitions. I would hope they realize that they can make more great music for years to come and that they can balance their side projects.
Anyway, as I was saying about Lewis, I was walking to Webster Hall after getting a quick bite at a pizza place named PIE that is near by. I'm crossing the street and see Jenny, Blake and drummer Jason standing on the corner. I think, "I have my blog card, Music Snobbery branded guitar picks and a camera. I could take a picture, give out the cards and it would be cool." Except, it's Jenny Lewis and she's a knockout. As I'm walking towards them, I'm debated to introduce myself and sound like blithering idiot in front of J. Lew or just leave them alone. I let them be, which I regretted about two seconds after I walked passed them. I think if it was after the show, I'd probably say something, but they're were probably on their way to eat so they don't need to be bothered by some blogger. Plus, I didn't wash my hands after eating because I was in a rush to get to the venue to wait in line for 30 minutes before they let us in.
Johnathan Rice, or as like to call him "The Luckiest Guy On Earth" is on this tour, as he was with Jenny's solo tour. Can't player hate on Jenny's man, because he's become a pretty good singer-songwriter. His alt-country rock songs are lively and he seems like an easy going guy on stage. He's got some goofy, off-kilter stage banner where he'll say, "So this song is about when I was living in New York. I would go off on tour and my roommate had this cousin who looked just like me. My girlfriend at the time came to my apartment when my roommate's cousin was sleeping in my bed ... well I guess it was dark and my girlfriend thought ... you know ... anyway this song is about that ... I guess we are like in certain ways."
Grand Ole Party was a nice discovery. Lead singer and drummer Kristen Gundred does double duty with some backing percussion with Rilo as well. Anyway, imagine Karen O fronting The Noisettes and you can gather what they sound like. They've got soul coming out of every hole.
