March 25, 2009Headlined by The Academy Is..., the Snakes & Suits Acoustic Tour played to a small but largely appreciative audience at the Hi Dive in downtown Denver last night.
The acoustic tour features Evan Taubenfeld, playing solo, as well as pared-down versions of This Providence and The Academy Is.... (And thank you, TAI, for the punctuation conundrums.) Later in the tour, Empires will be taking over for This Providence, who had scheduling conflicts.
Evan Taubenfeld might have some good music in him, but it was hard to tell from last night's performance. Seemingly more interested in schtick than music, he didn't manage to finish a single song without interrupting himself. His need to engage with the resulting hecklers didn't help. Based on the snippets of songs he did manage to play, Taubenfeld is talented and writes good songs. Given his experience as lead guitarist for Avril Lavigne, he should know how to put on a better live show. But at this point he definitely needs more work and experience in that area before he can hold an audience.
After Taubenfeld, the much more professional This Providence was a breath of fresh air. Normally a four-piece band, the native Seattle band has pared down to just Dan Young (guitar and vocals) and Gavin Phillips (guitar) for this tour. Most of the songs they performed were from their new album, Who Are You Now?, which dropped on March 17. They also threw in a cover of "Don't Look Back in Anger," by Oasis. I hadn't heard This Providence before this concert, but I enjoyed their set enough that I picked up their CD after the show (and got an autograph from Young, who kindly put up with my usual lame sense of humor).
The Academy Is...'s set (again with the punctuation conundrums) was mostly the William Beckett show, though bassist Adam Siska joined him on stage for two songs--"The Test" and the crowd-pleasing finale "About a Girl." The rest of the show was Bill and his guitar, and he pulled it off beautifully. Opening with a cover of Damien Rice's "Elephant", Beckett played a thirteen-song set, mixing songs from Almost Here with newer cuts from Fast Times at Barrington High and throwing in a couple more covers along the way (Death Cab for Cutie's "Marching Bands of Manhattan" and Alkaline Trio's "Radio"). His patter and between-song storytelling added to the show rather than detracting (Taubenfeld, please take note). Especially moving was his introduction to "Down and Out," when he revealed the song to be about his experience with domestic abuse via his parents' relationship. This middle-aged former housewife took some exception, however, to his comments on middle-aged housewives at the Gap. I'll forgive him, though, because he puts on a excellent show even without the rest of his band to back him up.
Because the show ended late, Beckett and Siska departed without lingering to sign autographs. Earlier in the evening, though, Siska graciously posed for photographs and signed CDs when fans approached him at the bar where he was socializing with Young, Phillips, and TAI's tour manager Tony Mariano. All in all, in spite of the shaky start, the evening proved a solid start to my personal 2009 concert season.
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