Unassuming Indie Royalty
I was first turned on to Built to Spill in the late aughts by an ex-girlfriend of my drummer. The band appealed to my taste for simple, yet sardonically laced guitar rock that was somewhat reminiscent of such mid-90s alternative acts as Tripping Daisy or early iterations of The Flaming Lips. While I always appreciated their sound, I never delved in so deep as to consider myself an ardent fan, but years later that changed when I witnessed the band’s triumphant return to The Blue Note stage earlier this week.
Touring on the heels of their latest release When the Wind Forgets Your Name, the band entered the stage with quite literally the least amount of fanfare I’ve seen for a headlining touring act. In fact, this is part and parcel of their charm. Not only was there no grand entrance, but the band acted as their own roadies. Setting up their pedal boards, shuffling across the stage, and tuning their own instruments. The only thing to indicate that the show was indeed about to begin was a short nod from frontman and band mastermind Doug Martsch to the sound person.
This everyman approach continued on throughout the show. There was no forced banter with the crowd. In fact, Martsch only addressed the crowd on two brief occasions. With no guitar techs in the wings, there were no roadies running on stage to hand band members freshly tuned axes. Instead, Martsch made sure to take his time, tuning his guitar after every single song. There was no race to the finish, no flair, or pomp.
The show needed no pomp, however as the band was absolutely on fire and in the moment as they tore through the band’s catalog. Between the epic, 10-minute-long jams of songs like Goin’ Against Your Mind or the immediately infectious classic Big Dipper, Built to Spill owned the attention of an adoring crowd. I can speak to just how much adoration was in the room. One stranger took his time to stop me just to let me know that his favorite band on the planet was about to take the stage. Devin Burrow, guitarist for my band Decadent Nation was also in the crowd and confided that Built to Spill was in his top three favorite acts of all time. Being my first experience with seeing them live, such fandom was warranted. I came to be amazed at how many of their songs featured many of the same chords, but how wildly different each one was. Much in the same way that country music can be referred to as some version of “three chords and the truth,” I’m hard pressed to not ruminate on the sometimes magical way that the band spiraled from basic power chord structures into expansive jams.
As the band closed out their encore, the show ended much as it began: simply. No mysterious disappearance behind the curtain. No cascading light show to close out the night. Martsch thanked the crowd, unplugged his in-ear monitors, and stood there for a few moments acknowledging the crowd, before turning to break down his own rig.