Listening In Live to Tilly and the Wall: 3/21/2008

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Since the moment they decided to use Jamie Williams' tap-dancing feet for percussion instead of drums, Tilly and the Wall has been a band unafraid of taking chances with its music. This fondness for experimentation was once again clear from the six brand new songs that were on exhibit during the group's latest stop at New York's Knitting Factory last Friday.

Opening the show and warming the crowd was New Hampshire's Jason Anderson. Quite a showman, he charmed the audience with light, poppy, call-and-response sing-a-longs, though with a first song that spent 3 minutes repeating "Tonight! Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh" he seemed to have replaced any sense of inventiveness in his songwriting with simple enthusiasm, hoping it would be enough. He channels a tremendous amount of positive energy, but until he infuses more creativity and variety into his music it will exclusively occupy the realm of songs that are played during the final scenes of a Dawson's Creek episode.

In stark contrast to Anderson, The Capgun Coup took the stage next duct-taping together many familiar sounds to create an occasionally unbalanced, occasionally raucous cacophony of rock and roll. In their music easy melodies give way to harsh vocalizations, and tempo repeatedly shifts back and forth from bouncy to driving as the band scratches jagged lines into an ordinarily clean finish. Though the road this foursome travels is hardly untrodden in today's indie scene – for instance, Most Serene Republic, Sunset Rubdown and Frog Eyes all travel parallel paths – the Capgun Coup bring a certain freshness and liveliness to the sound.

Closing out the evening, Tilly and the Wall appeared with Williams and singers Kiana Alarid and Neely Jenkins dressed like characters in an Austin Powers dance number, if it were directed and produced by Tim Burton. The eeriness of the atmosphere deepened as the band launched into its set, and everybody's favorite folk-tinged tap-dance powered indie-pop band brought out a drummer to complement Williams' tap shoes and railed off two new numbers that can be best termed glam rock. When Williams said in an interview with Under the Radar Magazine, "A lot of the songs so far are more punk than our last records, and they are a little more hard rock as well," she wasn't kidding.

This turn of sound came, perhaps, as an even greater surprise to those that have heard the 7" single "Beat Control" whose early 90s dance-pop rhythms graced the set as well. More new tracks emerged throughout the evening with styles ranging from ballad to bubble-gum rock to Revolver-era Beatles, but always maintaining Tilly's trademark raw exuberance and youthful energy.

"Bad Education", "Rainbows in the Dark", "Sing Songs Along", "Urgency", Spanish-influenced "Bad Education", elegiac "Lost Girls" and slightly electronic "Freest Man" all made appearances from the band's tighter, slightly more polished second full length Bottoms of Barrels. The group also dipped back into its unrestrained debut, Wild Like Children, with "Fell Down the Stairs", "Nights of the Living Dead", and "Reckless."

Ultimately, though the band introduced some unexpected music, the show was typical Tilly and the Wall. Deep, rich harmonies, and incredibly textured layers of sound accompanied an energy that was infectious and irrepressible. Brimming with the hopefulness and electricity that has become their trademark their performance was pure revelry; passion personified. Behind the microphones with the spotlights on they were the impetuousness of childhood, the frustrated longing of adolescence and the invincibility of young adulthood.

Those familiar with the group's live show will realize that these qualities are standard fare. Each time the band plays it evokes the vital and the visceral. In the time between the first song and the last encore, all that exists is the achievable. The impulsive seems calculated, the absurd seems logical and, if only for one night, even the most foolhardy dreams seem possible.

This article cross-posted from the new ListenInMusic.com.

© Eric Atienza 2008 for Listen In Some rights reserved.

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