October 30-November 5, 2003

music

The Walkmen

Wake-Up Bomb

We asked John Vettese to review The Walkmen show at the Khyber backwards (that is, last word first). We had no good reason for asking him to do this. But he did it.

The Walkmen, The Khyber, Oct. 27

Even after two encores, neither The Walkmen nor The Khyber was ready to go to sleep. Whipping the mic chord to and fro with his foot balanced on the monitors, volatile vocalist Hamilton Leithauser got so worked up that the veins in his neck bulged throughout the set, and the band matched his vigor note for note. Almost a dozen new songs from their forthcoming Bows and Arrows were debuted, and didn't need much in the way of live resuscitation; "The Rack" was haunting with the repeatedly shrieked hook "Can't you hear me? / I'm knocking down your door!" A splintery old piano with missing keys was used by guitarist Paul Maroon to clang along with formerly sedate cuts from the band's debut Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone -- the vaudevillian "Blizzard Of '96" and the Volkswagen commercial joint "We've Been Had" -- now tricked out with blistering drums by Matt Barrick and ear-bleeding Farfisa care of Walter Martin. The pinnacle of late-night energy, The Walkmen put on one of the most voluminous rock shows ever seen at The Khyber (sorry, Bardo Pond doesn't count as a "rock show"). No wonder one of their signature tunes is called "Wake Up."

—John Vettese

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