Band of Horses

Caught Band of Horses last night at the Metro with the Drones and Tyler Ramsey, a.k.a. guitarist for Band of Horses. Tyler kicked things off with a solo guitar set that was very Iron and Wine-y, ending with a cover of Dylan's "Wallflower" that was pretty awesome.

Then the Drones played. I think in a previous life they were known as "Buckcherry."

I saw Band of Horses last year at Schubas, and though the set was rife with technical difficulties and too much tuning, Ben Bridwell's sparkling personality saved the show for me. I wondered how they would fare in the bigger Metro, as it's probably not intimate enough for Ben to be able charm everyone in the same way. This show was totally different from that Schubas show, however; they were much tighter overall and while they still had some moments of downtime in between songs as Ben changed between his 6 or so guitars, the fact that they had a roadie whose sole job was to sit behind the stage and have the next guitar tuned and ready for the next song, the amount of time sitting and waiting was much reduced. (Guess when you have a tour sponsored by Zune and a bus with your name on it, you can afford to pay people to do these things for you!). Meanwhile, Ben stayed much quieter this time around, probably due to the fact that he "had the plague", which he mentioned immediately, though he admitted later in the show that it was going "much better than he thought it would." The set was probably about 60/40 Everything All the Time/Cease to Begin, with everyone of course doing the most freaking out during "Funeral."

Band of Horses ended the evening with a pretty thrilling cover of Them Two's "Am I a Good Man" (a song I'd never heard of before but went googling after this performance). It proved to be a powerful soul number that really showed off Ben's singing ability; his voice sounded much less quirky than it usually does and it just soared over the audience. They definitely need to put that cover on an EP or something. Here's a video someone took on Youtube, and a link to the original song.

I took a few pictures during the show and will see if they turned out and post them tomorrow.