The Walkmen

I want The Walkmen to succeed. They have the makings of a great band... a unique sound, a great vocalist and the odd great song. But like their last album, their recent Melbourne show was, for the most part, underwhelming at best.

The Corner wasn’t as packed as I’d expected. When I turned up, Eddy Current Suppression Ring were wowing the bogan punters with their weird early 80’s rock. If you haven’t seen these guys live, go and check them out. Their gig last night reminded me of the scene where Bad Boy Bubby jumps up on stage for the first time. Oddly fascinating.

Then The Walkmen took to the stage, with equal enthusiasm from a different element of the crowd. They started strong enough with early highlights including ‘Emma, Get Me a Lemon’ and 2004 hit ‘The Rat’. But soon enough, lead singer Hamilton Leithauser took on an almost defeated manner. I’m not sure what it was. Maybe jetlag, maybe fatigue, maybe he was sick? Whatever it was, he couldn’t last the distance and his enthusiasm for the gig seemed to drip away from him in beads of sweat. And like a virus was infecting them all, the rest of the band followed suit (apart from the drummer who played with ferocious enthusiasm from start to finish).

My other gripe is this. I value my hearing and I suspect The Walkmen took some of it from me. Without exaggeration, they were the loudest band I have ever heard. I actually woke up the next morning due to the ringing in my ears which is still yet to leave me. Amazingly, the band seemed oblivious to their own level, and were without earplugs for the entire set. So in the band’s defence (sort of), it’s hard to enjoy anything when it literally hurts to listen to it.

The Walkmen are a great band. They write music without a ‘lets do whatever it takes' agenda. They don’t have the seemingly obligatory rock n’ roll haircuts, or write music that is particularly ‘trendy’ to play. It’s for this reason that I so badly want them to rise up and dominate the world with their good intentions. But where they generally succeed in their sincerity, they lacked in their ability to deliver a convincing performance. And before you start burning effigies in my image, I’m well aware that many people will disagree with me. There seemed to be many members of the crowd who were wowed by every song. But they don’t write reviews, at least not for thedwarf.com.au, so suck it up and deal with it. The Walkmen were a let down.

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