Music Under Fire

We went to see one of our all-time favorite bands on Tuesday! Pinback are more known for their synchronized guitar plucking and West Coast style of experimental mellow music than they are for being a performance savvy band, and Tuesday night's show in downtown Philadelphia at the TLA on South Street showed just that, and held a few surprises as well.

The show began with Rob Crow introducing himself to the crowd and painfully announcing that Terrin Durfey, the band's keyboardist, would not be available to play due to his cancer resurfacing. Durfey has been battling cancer for almost 10 years, but this time it has come back more serious than before. If you would like to make a donation, go to his fund raising website. In lieu of this, Crow announced "Week-and-a-half Bob", the dreadlocked keyboardist, learned all of the band's songs in just as much time so they could complete their fall tour. And Bob did a decent job, too.



Let me preface this show review with the fact that Autumn of the Seraphs is Pinbacks most complete album to date. When AOTS surfaced during the show, it shined. Their best performed songs were not my traditional favorites, "Penelope", "Loro" or "Fortress". Crow and Smith excelled as they performed "How We Breathe" and the soon-to-follow "Devil You Know" from their newest album.

It seemed the louder Zach Smith and Crow yelled, the better the performance, although this is debatable. From a fan of Pinback's recorded works, Smith's harmonious, yet standoffish, vocals came across commanding in front of the screaming legion at the TLA, while Crow's grungier thwapping of the bass attracted listeners to him more so than his vocals. This isn't a surprise though, as the group does harness that strong bass in their recorded works, although for a large man with a beard who stands on front of the stage, something other than a bass being played might be considered the attention-grabber.




Pinback's performance was laced with lots of older songs such as "Offcell" and "AFK", but something about the tempo of the live show didn't allow for a soft transition to the 'lesser known'. At times, Smith's work as lead guitarist was so sped up by either himself or someone else on stage that the songs didn't facilitate the easy-going West Coast feel that makes Pinback so soothing. Even the lyrics needed to have their pace picked up and despite the comforting videos playing behind the group on the wall, the tempo hurt their performance.

What did save the show could be once again pinned back to the cleanliness in presentation all five members on stage nailed down. Whether it was "How We Breathe" or "Torch" or anything in between, the reverberations sent shivers of excitement down the spines of the attendees.

MP3: Pinback - Prog (live in San Fransisco) (buy)
MP3: Pinback - Penelope (buy)
MP3: Pinback - Microtonic Wave (buy)

To catch Pinback while their tour is still going on, head to their myspace page or check out the tour dates below:

10/4 Providence, Rhode Island
10/5 Boston, Massachusetts
10/7 Toronto, Ontario
10/8 Cleveland, Ohio
10/9 Columbus, Ohio
10/10 Louisville, Kentucky
10/11 Columbia, Missouri
10/12 Chicago, Illinois
10/13 Madison, Wisconsin
10/15 Missoula, Montana
10/16 Seattle, Washington
10/17 Portland, Oregon
10/19 San Francisco, California
10/20 Los Angeles, California
10/22 San Diego, California

Video: Pinback - Microtonic Wave

Pinback - Microtonic Wave (live) from Brendan / Justin McMahon on Vimeo.