The three members of Plants And Animals stood on the stage of New York’s Bowery Ballroom covered in sweat and completely exausted. It’s no surprise to those in the audience who just witnessed the bands energetic set on that rainy Wednesday night in New York City.
Just a few weeks following the release of La La Land, Plants And Animals members, Warren C. Spicer, Matthew ‘the Woodman’ Woodley, and Nicolas Basque are one night away from finishing a North American tour. The guys are off to Boston for one more show and then they will be taking a couple days of well deserved rest in Cape Cod. Spicer told the crowd he was looking forward to “gettin’ some deck shoes and relaxin'”.
But on stage there would be no relaxing for Spicer, Basque or Woodley for that matter. The band blasted through 12 songs including La La Land highlights “Tom Cruz” a grungy guitar riff driven tune, the wonderfully sad sounding “Game Shows” and the exhilarating romper “The Mama Papa”. The guitars were loud and the distortion was turned way up filling the air thick with reverb. Just as the band follows in the classic tradition of analog recording and old fashioned tape their sound also remains true to the rock ‘ roll bible’s written by Neil Young and Steven Stills and Joe Walsh.
Singer/songwriter Warren Spicer stands at stage left as he bashes on his Gibson SG like it stole something while multi instrumentalist Nicholas Basque handled his guitar and bass duties – sometimes at the same time on the same instrument. Drummer, Matthew Woodley pounded out the beats with authority, passion and a truly strange personality that I couldn’t quite figure out even after this my second time seeing Plants And Animals live. I saw them last year when they opened up for Blitzen Trapper and they were good then too.
The aftermath of upcoming festival dates at Wicker Park in Chicago, Standon Calling in the UK, Linden Park in Germany Bumbershoot in Seattle and nonstop touring should guarantee them new fans at ever night.
This North American tour was supported by Lost In The Trees, a talented acoustic folk act for fans of Rural Alberta Advantage. The singer, Ari Picker told the crowd that a thief stole $2000 from the band and then played a song for the bandit. Picker then reminisced about how he saw Space Hog at the Bowery Ballroom ten years earlier. Ending the set the band unplugged their instruments and got ‘lost in the crowd” for a heartfelt ballad that had the entire room singing along to the “ooh ooh ooh’s and “La la da da’s”.
Setlist
Sparks
Good Friend
Tom Cruz
Celebration
Game Show
Feedback in The Field
Jeans Jeans Jeans
NKOL
Faerie
The Mama Papa
Bye Bye Bye
Encore:
Mercey
