It must be hard to be Win Butler’s little brother, and Will Butler may have a bit of that self-affirmation eagerness in him, after his 14-year run with Arcade Fire, the little band which has exploded to stadium-rock proportions. Do you even notice Will when you attend an Arcade Fire concert? I don’t know, there’s always a lot going on and Win is so tall and Régine so cute, that Will is part of the busy and agitated background. Nevertheless, Will is a true rock star, and this is what he is determined to prove, doing a solo tour promoting his solo album ‘Policy’, as well as some new ones and a few songs he wrote during a writing-a-song-a-day experimental week, fishing inspiration from The Guardian headlines.
I saw Will at the Troubadour last night, and it was a very pleasant show, laid back and filled with humor and energy, a very intimate one too, as I was standing as close as you can get, still mad at the strict policy of the Troubadour not allowing decent cameras inside (I never have this problem when I go to a show on the eastside) and imagining all the good shots I could have made of Will’s funny poses and comic moves. Talking about funny, the show opened with comedian Jo Firestone, an original change as we usually get a few unknown bands before the main act. Jo was very funny, and her weird brand of humor was working very well with the crowd, as she was rewarding people with a spray in the mouth, coming from a toy watergun filled with chocolate milk. But she wasn’t exactly the first act, Will came first with a song — may be one of the Guardian songs I am not sure — before letting the stage to Firestone’s surrealist fantasy involving lots of crazy games and Liza Minnelli on a lake with ducks… don’t ask me more! But she also tried to staple the date of the show, May 27th, in our memory, imagining us in the future talking to our grandchildren, asking, ‘What was it like to be at this Will Butler’s show at the Troubadour?’
Will Butler brought the energy of ‘Policy’ to the roof of the room, and gave us an explosive show backed up by 3 musicians, with the 4 of them wearing personalized sweaters, with Will, Julie, Sara, and Miles written on them. May be that was a way for him to feel humble and equal to his musicians, may be it was a joke, but in any case there was a very disheveled energy all-set long as he would hardly stop between the songs and do a lot of jumping, dancing between guitar and keyboard. Will is used to the arena-size show, Arcade Fire has multiplied its energy by a million to bring down places like the Forum, so no wonder he was exploding the small venue. There were no layered guitars for Will, just his, wild and Kinks-esque at time, backed up by keyboards, synths and a drumset, but always dominated by his strong and familiar voice. He sounds a lot like his brother most of the time, and he was backed up by lots of female harmonies … it was a power house with not that many instruments, it was a a show with a restless and upbeat energy, even going frenetic except during ‘Sing to Me’, the sole slow moment of the show. The 16-song set was filled with Butler’s quirky music, his personal sonic experiment, quite difficult to categorize in a few words, and this is probably a good point for him, he certainly doesn’t try to remake Arcade Fire. Still, there were strange ones, like ‘Anna’, with its 80’s dance feel which worked very well on the crowd nevertheless. ‘Madonna Can’t Save Me Now’ was a sort of highlight, with its David-Byrne-strange-lullaby structure, and it’s not the only time during the show that the Talking Head frontman came to mind.
He even covered the Magnetic Fields (‘The Death of Ferdinand de Sauss’) and the show took a new rocker energy after the playful ‘Witness’, with the punkish ‘What I want’ and my favorite ‘Take My Side, which seemed to be two songs in one, with a sort of pre-rock-50’s vibe.
‘Ten years ago, I played here with Arcade Fire; I’m an old man now,’ said the 32-year-old musician, and it was almost the only thing he said during the show. Ten years ago? That was before Arcade Fire took over the world, and at this moment, he seemed to be talking about a totally different era.
The show had the feel of true entertainment, going from bouncy-boogie piano, to exuberant do-wop-y rhythms, or quiet soulful keys with a touch of the 50’s and lots of catchy oooo-oooo-choruses,… after all his album ‘Policy’ has been stamped ‘in the tradition of the Violent Femmes, The Breeders, The Modern Lovers, Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson, The Magnetic Fields, Ghostface Killah. And John Lennon’… a lot of ambition, and may be Will Butler is too much all over the place just like his eccentric dance moves. However, I don’t think Will Butler takes himself seriously for a second. The quartet even did ‘an experiment’ for the encore, playing a comforting unknown song over a piano loop. Of course it was Hollywood and the show attracted a few celebrities, I could tell looking at the paparazzi posted at the exit door! Emma Stone was apparently spotted holding hands with Spiderman Andrew Garfield, a cute couple for a cute energy-filling night, but overall Will Butler is a very engaging and passionate performer who got rid of any fake grandeur forever stuck to Arcade Fire’s big appetite, and that was refreshing.
Setlist
You Must Be Kidding
Son of God
When the Sun Comes Up
Madonna Can’t Save Me Now
Something’s Coming
Anna
II
Clean Monday
Cold
Sing to Me
Luckiest Sailor
The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure
(The Magnetic Fieldscover)
Witness
What I Want
Take My Side
Encore:
(Unknown)
(cover song)
