PLAYGROUND BOSTON

The Cave Singers (photo by Pete Legasey)

When I first got to the Cave Singers show at TT the Bear’s last Thursday, I glanced at the set list posted outside the door. Shit. They don’t go on until midnight. With a reluctant sigh and the Charlie Brown music playing in my head, I yanked the door open and headed straight for the bar. Might as well enjoy myself, right?

But then a sound caught my ear and caused me to twist my head around towards the stage: Old Abram Brown was mid-song and lead singer Carson Lund had just brandished a glossy trumpet. The stately sound floated throughout their songs rather than acting as a solo and it was the perfect complement to Lund’s fervent vocals, accented with a faint, raw quiver. “Alright,” I thought. “Maybe this won’t be that terrible.”

Old Abram Brown is a young group – the X’s on the backs of their hands attested to that – but that doesn’t mean that their sound is underdeveloped. Quite the opposite: the four boys, mostly Berklee College students, seem to know the exact direction they want their music to take. They’re a band to watch.

Mean Creek

Between their set and the next band, local faves Mean Creek, X-marked hands and gauged ears in the audience were replaced with thick grizzly-man beards and even thicker flannel attire. As usual, Mean Creek brought their deep energy and drive, despite front man Chris Keene’s poor health and apologetic, “Sorry if I suck.” The foursome brought their set home with the title track off their latest album, “The Sky (Or The Underground).”

Canadian-based Lightning Dust was next to take the stage, a side project brought to us by Amber Webber and Joshua Wells of Black Mountain. Their gentle harmonies, infused with sincerity, were a definite contrast to Mean Creek’s intensity, but the group managed to enchant the audience into a reverent awe. A tremor underscored Webber’s twangy singing voice, but you could be sure it was from pure passion rather than some sort of uncertainty, especially on the uncharacteristically upbeat closing song, “Wind Me Up,” off their 2007 self-titled album.

Lightning Dust

Finally, it was time for the Cave Singers. The crowd gradually filled in for the Seattle-based trio and their hopping tunes. “I Don’t Mind,” off their latest album, “Welcome Joy,” released in August, was a stand-out song that got most of the band and audience alike engaged in that lighter version of head-banging where you slap your palms against your thighs in approval.

Peter Quirk of the Cave Singers

Lead singer Pete Quirk, who often held his hands clasped in front of him appreciatively, has vocals that seem to hail directly from the glory days of country music and his interspersed screams and yelps seemed to rouse the crowd, enticing them to join in. Marty Lund’s drums heralded the impending quickening beats, and you’d assume there were plenty more members than just the three on stage. Their full, evolved sound could, at any moment, go from a rousing pick me up to a droning down tempo hymn – subject matter and moods were switched up effortlessly.

Songs like “New Monuments,” highlighted the group’s impassioned voices and guitar notes that seem to overlap and tumble over each other like a waterfall. Their music has an inherent way of making you think of driving on an open dusty highway among the golden flatlands or craggy mountain peaks of middle America.

Derek Fudesco of the Cave Singers

Their closing song sent the crowd into a wild uproar of stomping feet and clapping hands, while the brim of Quirk’s hat hung low over his eyes and his tambourine clamored wildly in his hands. The three musicians, each clad in their own shade of scruff, graced the entreating crowd with an encore that left everyone cheering long after they’d gone from the stage.

If you’re still unsure of the sound, think Kings of Leon meets Fleet Foxes – somewhere in the middle, you get the Cave Singers.

The Cave Singers
Mean Creek
Lightning Dust
Old Abraham Brown

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All photos by Pete Legasey

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