Throw Me The Statue, the Brunettes & Nurses @ 7th St. Entry

[The Brunettes]

There was plenty of room for dancing at the 7th Street Entry on Wednesday night as Seattle’s Throw Me The Statue (TMTS) came to town in support of their excellent new record Creaturesque, and it was a good thing too, as a lot of the people that were in attendance had their dancing shoes on and frolicked about to the band’s lively and entertaining set. TMTS brought with them Portland’s Nurses and the Brunettes from New Zealand (who were playing with them for the first time on this tour). And while Nurses will only benefit from touring with a couple of talented and seasoned bands, the Brunettes certainly set the stage well for the headliners on what amounted to be a fun evening in the Entry.

Nurses have hints of both Fleet Foxes and Grizzly Bear in their sound, but the three piece band needs to polish their sound and stage presence a bit before their music will become distinguished enough to be memorable.Their set also suffered from vocals that were turned up so loud in the mix that there was a noticeable buzzing in the speakers that was too distracting an obstacle for the music to overcome. The guys seem earnest enough, and didn’t seem fazed by the turnout as they played their hearts out to a relatively sparse crowd during their set. Their songs show enough promise and ingenuity that touring with these two bands will only prove to be beneficial to the group’s sound in the long run.

[The Brunettes]

The club filled up a bit more before the Brunettes set started, and the crowd seemed to really enjoy the five piece bands manner of buoyant, 60′s-styled pop songs. The group is certainly charming—most certainly easy on the eyes no matter which side of the fence you’re on—and that poise and charisma goes along way towards elevating what are already pretty jaunty, optimistic songs. They even managed to bring some cheer into the Cure’s “Lovesong,” which the band covered pretty early on in their set. “Loopy Loopy Love” also proved to be a lighthearted highlight of their set, which featured plenty of keyboards (there were no less than three on stage, as well as a miniature piano that added a childlike and endearing feel to the music whenever it was featured). The band are certainly treading on some well-worn musical traditions, but they bring an endearing, likable quality to their familiar sound, and those qualities went a long way towards not only winning the crowd over but causing them to dance and clap along to their catchy beats and hooks. And when the band closed with “Polyester Meets Acetate,” which front man Jonathan Bree quipped was “Our most rocking song. It’s a pale imitation of the E Street Band,” they left most of the crowd smiling and thoroughly entertained after their engaging set.

[Throw Me The Statue]

TMTS’s recorded output is stylistically so diverse that it was tough to gauge what sort of sound and structure that head Statue Scott Reitherman would choose to deliver his indelible songs on this tour. They are currently touring as a four piece, with Charlie Smith on bass, Aaron Goldman on keyboards and Jarred Grimes on drums. And these musicians really fleshed out what are essentially Reitherman’s one-man band sound on record, bringing an added depth and energy to songs that were flush with sentiment already. Their live sound is propulsive and very guitar and drum heavy, with the band creating enough of a racket so Reitherman’s lilting vocals didn’t always have to be on pitch in order to fit the passion of the song.

[Throw Me The Statue]

[Throw Me The Statue]

Their 55 minute set leaned heavily on songs from the recently released Creaturesque, produced by the seemingly ubiquitous Phil Ek, with the band kicking things off with a bouncy version of “Ancestors” that found the guys getting used to the tiny Entry stage and trying to forge a connection with the crowd. After a upbeat take on “Dizzy From The Fall,” the set hit a bit of a lull with a plodding “Noises” that failed to really catch a spark. But the next two songs really found the band hitting their stride, with both the drum machine aided “Snowshoes” and the instantly catchy “Lolita” really sounding sublime in the tiny club. And from this point on the show was a congenial lark, with the hook laden songs rolling by quickly and effortlessly, alternating old songs with new for the rest of the set, with the band forgetting about their Prince and Jesse Ventura shout outs and just concentrating on the music.

[Throw Me The Statue]

“Hi-Fi Goon” has goofy, experimental Pavement-like qualities, both lyrically and musically, and really went over well live. The band returned to last years fantastic Moonbeams, for the rousing romp “Yucatan Gold,” which again was helped by the sinister funk of the drum machine, not that Grimes really needed any assistance, as his drumming was thunderous and on point for the whole set, and really helped to anchor these someone tenuous songs to a steady beat. “Pistols” slowed things down slightly, but that downturn proved to be brief, as a completely reworked “Written In The Heart Signs, Faintly” picked things right back up again with the booming, Keith Moon like drums of Grimes driving the song. It seems like Reitherman is rather Dylanesque with this song, continually reworking it (as two different recorded versions have been released, with neither of them sounding like this live version). I far preferred this intense, stirring live version to the much more subdued take on Moonbeams.

[Throw Me The Statue]

The show closed with the dynamic one-two punch of the rollicking “Waving At The Shore” and the subtly beautiful “About To Walk,” which ended the encore-less show perfectly and on a real high. Throw Me The Statue are becoming a real band as opposed to the fervid impulses of Reitherman, and that growing camaraderie truly benefits the songs, as they take on a much more full, enthusiastic feel in a live setting. I’m curious to see how Reitherman’s songwriting evolves with a full band at his side, but if this show is any indication, his music will only grow richer and more expansive. He seems to be the sort of artist who is never truly content to be boxed into a certain sound or structure, so I hope to continually be surprised and challenged by his future output. But for last night at least, I was completely entertained and enthralled by an exceptional band that really brought Reitherman’s songs to life, even if he might not be entirely finished tinkering with them just yet.

[Review by Erik Thompson, photos and videos by Chris DeLine.]

Throw Me The Statue: Purchase | Official | Twitter | MySpace Wikipedia
The Brunettes: Purchase | Official | MySpace | Wikipedia
Nurses: MySpace

Also: Throw Me The Statue “Hi-Fi Goon” Video