I went to see the Undertow Orchestra last night at the Iota Club and Cafe in Arlington VA. The “Orchestra” is an amalgamation of David Bazan of Pedro the Lion, Will Johnson of Centro-matic, Mark Eitzel of American Music Club, and the ever-enigmatic Vic Chesnutt. You could call them a mope-rock supergroup of sorts.

Iota is a small venue — I’d say not room for more than 100 to 150 in the main room. I saw Bazan before the show — he was mulling about, setting up, procuring drinks, etc. I smiled at him and got his attention. We ended up talking for a few minutes — mostly about his music (what else?). He was very forthcoming in his answers and sounded natural —very grounded. He confirmed my suspicions about the demise of Pedro the Lion but assured me that it was a death in name only. While Bazan will not be recording under that name, I wouldn’t consider the band’s breakup a great loss. The heart and soul of Pedro has always been Bazan — in fact his revolving cast of touring and session musicians can rightly be deemed Bazan’s band. Meaning no disrespect to said members, Bazan is Pedro the Lion. The others are simply his messengers. He may in fact employ a drummer and/or basist when he records his first proper solo album and tours. Nothing — save for the name — will have changed.

Singer/songwriter Jesse Harris opened for the band, and did a short seven or eight song set which consisted entirely of down-tempo ballads. During the set, I thought that his sound/intonation/lyrics were similar to Norah Jones’ debut album. I guess I didn’t put two and two together, because it turns out that he did indeed co-write Jones’ signature song “Don’t Know Why”, as well as a few others on the album. He even played guitar on about half the album. Bowl me over, why don’t you?!? Not only did he not perform any of the songs he wrote for Jones, but he didn’t even mention anything remotely pertaining to her during the set! The nerve of some people, I swear.

The Undertow Orchestra’s sound was more or less cohesive, considering that their first rehearsal was February 3, a mere eight days prior to the show. Will, David, Mark, and Vic took turns on lead vocals; all told, they did about six songs a piece.

Bazan’s sets consisted of “Bands With Managers”, “Priests and Paramedics”, and “Slow Car Crash”; then “Criticism as Inspiration”, “The Devil is Beating His Wife”, and “I Do”. “The Devil…” was a song from Pedro the Lion’s abandoned 2006 album sessions, originally recorded in demo form in fall 2005. I asked David about the song before the show; he said he liked it and would be incorporating it into his solo project. Hearing it live proved his was serious. It was also refreshing to hear “Slow Car Crash”, a standout synthesizer-infused song from Bazan’s side project, Headphones. It’s one of Bazan’s more “romantic” songs, albeit within the context of impending death.

However, the show ended on a high note of sorts, with Vic Chesnutt and the band singing his “In My Way, Yes”, a strong show closer. One would hope that this song exemplifies Chesnutt. But that’s just the optimist in me.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 12th, 2006 at 4:46 pm and is filed under music, photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.