concert review: The Middle East, Mumford & Sons

Slims
02 June 2010

Slims is a venue in San Francisco that generally hosts the slightly more hardcore shows that her cleaner cut sister venue, Great American Music Hall, passes on. Punk rock and the like. This was not the case on Wednesday night.

Australian folk collective The Middle East took the stage first (a little belatedly, the crowd was getting fussy) and engaged in some of the most communal, pass the bottle and the guitar around the campfire type music I’d heard in a long time.

It was as though each band member was in the wilderness, boldly baring all, rather than drowning beneath the traditional reservedness that comes with being an opening band. The softness of the band—accentuated by the token beardless girl (keys, flute)—all but disappeared as they exploded into a sea of post-rock noise, joined by two members of Mumford & Sons, in a track that began in spoken word, a la Dylan. The addition of neon green shakers added a rustic, tumbleweed feel to the night. The band has effectively infiltrated the ranks of indie-study music favourites like Sufjan Stevens and Sigur Ros. With seven band members, The Middle East’s slower songs often had one or two of the members adding soft layers by dabbling in household item percussion, but their crowd-pleasing closer, “Blood”, required all four guitars, a banjo, a couple of keyboards and a trumpet on hand.

3.5/5

The Middle East - Blood [mp3]

The Middle East - Lonely [mp3]

The Middle East - The Darkest Side [mp3]

The Middle East on MYSPACE

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out which of the two bands sold out the venue. The string-heavy Mumford & Sons had voraciously loyal fans in the audience spanning all ages, and—based on the accents I heard in my vicinity—a good few seemed to hail from the motherland itself. Having heard their acclaimed debut record a good few times, I never truly grasped the buzz about the London folk musicians. Sigh No More just never struck me in the right place. Upon seeing Mumford & Sons in the flesh, however, I began to understand the band’s appeal—the starkness of four men harmonizing on stage, plucking away at guitars, keyboards and a double bass was indeed a stunning thing to behold.

Most of their songs didn’t bother with proper percussion, just the occasional kick of a bass drum from frontman Marcus Mumford. However, on a newer track—“Lover of the Light”, Marcus sat behind the seldom used drum kit and worked up quite a sweat. The fans could not have been happier. Marcus had the whole floor laughing when he replied to somebody’s mock-apology for the revolutionary war. “It wasn’t one of our more important wars,” he chortled, after musing that this was the second time a fan felt compelled to make amends for America’s secession. Regardless, the night was a bit of a disappointment (just as I had surmised)—the band seemed to fill the indie quota for fans of Snow Patrol rather than contribute innovatively to the world of music. Sure, they had stage presence, and Mumford’s voice was powerful, but the delivery was still monotonous, somehow. Sorry Britain. We'll always have Brit-pop, though.
2.8/5

Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man [mp3]

Mumford & Sons on MYSPACE

more photos

The Middle East:

Mumford & Sons:

set list: