Great Show by Said the Whale at Mercury Lounge

Said the Whale from Vancouver, BC, was in town Tuesday night and having previously enjoyed their good energy live show, I was excited to see them again, this time at the Mercury Lounge on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. True to form, they played one of the best sets of music by any band in NYC over the past several months. They were tightly focused on steaming through their under 3-minute hook-laden tunes–drawn from all their prior albums, such as “Camillo,” and “Emerald Lake, Alberta,” and from their new album, “Hawaiii (with a third ‘i’) with its hit single, “I Love You,” a narrative about the discovery of a grown sibling heretofore unknown–yet they still had spontaneous fun on stage, making jokes with each other and relating to the audience. Drummer Spencer Schoening provided a resolute backbeat while also sounding some really great tone with his consistently interesting drumming; Nathan Shaw’s bass was full of creative thumping; Jacelyn Brown provided all the right accompaniment and back-up vocals (I do wish she’d sing lead on a song one of these days, as she does a great job in a duet on their song, “Loveless”); while Ben Worcester and Tyler Bancroft sang their hearts out and played tasty guitar licks. The band was even called back for an encore, a relative rarity in small Manhattan clubs where 40-minute sets, at the longest, are usually house rules. It was amazing. The Sadies are in town Friday night, and I hope to be there at Mercury Lounge for them, too. Meantime, here are pictures from Said the Whale’s great show, including a couple at the end I took of gig buddy Steve Conte with Tyler and then one Steve took of me with Ben.