don’t always pay attention to the location where music is played, sometimes sound and environment clash with each other, most of the time I am indifferent to the place and only concentrate on the music, but other times music fits perfectly with its surroundings, and that was the case on Saturday night when artsy Lord Huron played a free concert at the majestuous Getty museum. And listening to their exotic-riffs-tainted-glorious music in the courtyard of that beautiful place, between these tall white limestone walls was a memorable experience.
I have already written twice about this band, so what more can I say about their luminous songs filled of these layered multi-instruments-arrangements, all delicately populated by African guitars going into hypnotic loops? That they excelled on Saturday night, actually using different instruments than last time, and with a friend from the band Superhumanoids who had joined them on stage behind a series of steel drums. The diversity of the instruments and percussion seems so essential for what they are doing, and very methodically put together by the six persons on stage, embodying Ben Schneider’s vision as a full and real band.
Their music is like some warm and large body of water quietly surrounding you, but even when it seems so calm, the multi-instruments harmonies are ready to surprise you at any moment, jumping at your face and making these happy little synaptic fireworks in your head. But you could actually see any visuals with such imaginative wide-screen soundscapes, and this may be due to the fact that Lord Huron frontman studied painting at the University of Michigan, and ‘sees music as a natural extension of his creative impulses’.
Listening to these songs again, from their ‘Into the Sun’ and ‘Mighty’ EPs, just boosted in my memory their golden catchy individuality, their Calypso-party qualities as the band played ‘Into the Sun’, ‘Son of a Gun’, the drum-powered-up ‘We Went Wild’, the more-melancholic-than-the others ‘When will I see you again’, ‘The Problem with your Daughter’, the surprisingly very danceable ’The Stranger’, and of course ‘Mighty’, and a few new ones which actually sounded a little less tropical, but still emotionally charged by the same atmosphere, pierced by these repetitive bright guitars and chanted choruses. There was even one which sounded calm and nostalgic, played acoustically, very stripped down, emphasizing Schneider’s clear vocals, and reminding me the contrast between the lyrics and the overall joyous Afro-folk-pop aspect of the music.
Going to a Fucked Up concert and a Lord Huron concert during the same week made me again realize how music can serve so many different purposes, it always amazes me! And I am happy to live in a world where such opposite parts of the musical spectrum can co-exist. As their last song, ‘Mighty’, resonated in the Getty courtyard, I thought there were many ways to be indeed mighty.