The last time Austin band Okkervil River graced our shores they played to a small audience that barely filled the Rosemount Hotel, a few hundred people less than the sell-out audience at the Beck’s Music Box on Friday night. The smiles of the band as they walk on stage say it all; it seems the success of the latest album The Stage Names has done them well. From the first to last the set was flawless and full of life, even the quieter moments had the band members singing along to every word, captivating the audience with every note. This was the performance of a band in their prime.
The night kicked off with a track off their last Australian tour EP Overboard and Down. The President’s Dead starts off innocently enough with frontman Will Sheff and his acoustic guitar. The punch comes as Sheff belts out the last few lines and the band take up their instruments to come crashing in around him. They carry the song in an instrumental crescendo straight into the single Black, from the band’s third album Black Sheep Boy.
Sheff’s dark lyrics that characterise the first three albums are less omnipresent in the latest album. This is evident in the lighter feeling of A Hand to Take a Hold of the Scene, the first of many tracks played from The Stage Names.
A few songs in, Sheff claimed to be slowing things done with A Girl in Port. As testament to the conviction of his performance, the slower song broke two strings on Sheff’s acoustic guitar. Forced to play the next song Plus Ones for “the first time on an electric guitar”, his confidence never wavered.
With a restrung guitar in his hands, Sheff really did slow it down with Black Sheep Boy number A Stone followed by the long So Come Back I Am Waiting, off the same album.
One of the night’s many highlights came as the tune John Allen Smith Sails soared over the audience, inspiring perfectly timed hand claps from the smiling crowd. The band never faltered in the conviction of their performance, with vocals sung by five of the six members on stage. Even the absence of keyboardist Jonathan Meiburg was barely noticed as his replacement sang perfect backing vocals and was every bit as engaging as the rest of the band.
As the night wore on we heard the upbeat Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe, the first single off The Stage Names, filled again with the hand claps of the enthralled audience.
Second last in the set was the powerful For Real, a song that comes to life on stage with the punch of the drums and Sheff’s vocals pouring down the microphone.
Finishing with Unless It’s Kicks, the band left the stage to the sound of a sell-out crowd calling for more. As the older fans crossed their fingers for a song or two off one of the first two albums the band returned to give them just that.
With just a single song encore we were finally treated to a song off the first album – the epic murder tale of Westfall. It seems they saved the best for last. Even the inconsistencies in Will Sheff’s voice are soaked with passion as he leads the audience in one of the final lines, “Evil don’t look like anything”. And with one last thank you they walked off the stage, leaving the audience in the wake of what might have been the best show they’ve ever seen.
