{"id":3825,"date":"2019-02-21T11:57:10","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T16:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=3825"},"modified":"2019-12-17T20:14:13","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T01:14:13","slug":"review-houndmouth-paradise-rock-club-2-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2019\/02\/21\/review-houndmouth-paradise-rock-club-2-20\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Houndmouth @ Paradise Rock Club 2\/20"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Emma Kopelowicz<\/em><\/p>\n

Houndmouth transformed the Paradise Rock Club into a place of worship with their gospel rock and roll crooning on Wednesday, February 20. <\/span><\/p>\n

The band released their third album, <\/span>Golden Age<\/span><\/i>, in August 2018 and have been on a promotional tour for it since September. For the east coast leg of the tour, Houndmouth brought Modern Love Child and Ben Kweller as their opening acts. Modern Love Child took the stage first with a short but sweet set of poppy-alternative love songs. Ben Kweller followed up with a head-banging set filled with punk garage rock-inspired tunes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The stage was cluttered with doubles of almost every instrument\u2013\u2013drum kits, keyboards, guitars, basses\u2013\u2013while amps and rugs filled up the rest of the space. The set-up was slowly deconstructed after each opener performed. The stage was practically left bare save for a single set of each instrument (minus the guitars), a few amps decorated with singular light bulbs, and two rugs. It was obvious that Houndmouth wanted to space to be completely clear so they could have some room to move around.<\/span><\/p>\n

Houndmouth\u2019s latest album trades their typical bluesy rock and roll music for an 80\u2019s synth-filled, alternative sound. The band received lots of criticism from fans who felt betrayed by the band\u2019s use of digitalized instruments instead of sticking to their tried-and-true guitar, drums, and bass trifecta. In a <\/span>recent interview<\/span><\/a> with the band\u2019s drummer Shane Cody, he rested fans assure that \u201ct<\/span>he structure, the songwriting, the stories are the same, they just sound different.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Pink and green lights illuminated the stage as the band walked on with beer and tequila bottles in tow. Cody lifted his cup to the crowd before taking his seat behind the elevated drum set positioned center stage. The crowd swayed along as they opened with the mellow \u201cLudlow\u201d off their first album. The Houndmouth purists in the crowd must have breathed a sigh of relief when they heard the familiar twang of the lead singer Matt Myers\u2019s voice as he sang the band\u2019s old country-fried rock and roll ballads.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, the majority of the set was comprised of songs from the band\u2019s past albums. They played \u201cBy God\u201d and \u201cPalmyra,\u201d to get the crowd settled into the room, and they brought on some horn players, an extra bassist, and a keyboardist to fuel their soulful playing. Myers and Zak Appleby, the bassist, alternated harmonizing vocals on these tunes as if playing a casual game of catch. <\/span><\/p>\n

The band transitioned so smoothly between each song that it was almost easy to forget if what was being played was old or new material. \u201cModern Love\u201d slipped in perfectly between \u201cBlack Gold\u201d and \u201cSay It,\u201d since they played it in the style of their older music. This formula seemed to be the key to the band\u2019s success during this performance, and it also showed that their new material certainly translates well on stage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Houndmouth performed with pure adrenaline and spirit as each member of the band took turns belting out parts of songs. Myers blew everyone away with his slide-guitar talents, while Appleby and Cody proved that they each had impressive vocal ranges that brought new life to the choruses they sang respectively.<\/span><\/p>\n

On songs like \u201cHoney Slider\u201d and \u201cHey Rose,\u201d the guest saxophonist got the crowd roaring as he poured his heart and soul into his solos. The band intermixed hard and soft moments into their songs by incorporating intricate harmonies on top of rattling beats. A perfect example of this happened when they performed a stripped-back version of \u201cCoast to Coast\u201d off of <\/span>Golden Age<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

The band ended with their most popular hit, \u201cSedona,\u201d and the crowd couldn\u2019t help belting along with Myers as he summoned his most epic vocals to finish off the set. The stage was washed in neon pink light as the audience chanted the song\u2019s most memorable lyric, \u201cSO BRIGHT AND PINK!\u201d Pure euphoric energy radiated from the stage and cast spiritual energy throughout the room as the band played out on this sweet note.<\/span><\/p>\n

After a brief pause, Myers returned to the stage accompanied by the saxophonist to perform an acoustic version of \u201cFor No One\u201d that left everyone feeling like the song was actually being played especially for them. Then the rest of Houndmouth returned to the stage to deliver a stellar and moving rendition of \u201cDarlin\u2019.\u201d To officially finish off the night, the band played the light-hearted tune \u201cMy Cousin Greg\u201d to stir everyone\u2019s spirits one last time.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear that Houndmouth\u2019s recent experimental shift in direction musically has not changed their old-fashioned sensibilities. Other than the occasional synth beat to supplement their new material, they passionately performed a classic rock and roll show with real instruments. This show proved that although <\/span>Golden Age<\/span><\/i> represents a new horizon for Houndmouth they have still managed to remain true to their roots.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Emma Kopelowicz Houndmouth transformed the Paradise Rock Club into a place of worship with their gospel rock and roll crooning on Wednesday, February 20. The band released their third album, Golden Age, in August 2018 and have been on a promotional tour for it since September. For the east coast leg of the tour, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525],"tags":[676,117],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3826,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825\/revisions\/3826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}