Review/Photos: Givers w/ The Lemurs at The Parish in Austin, TX; 12.18.2009
words by Andy Pareti
photos by Randy Cremean
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There’s so much to say about Givers, a band on a steadfast journey taking its first steps out of the shadow of obscurity. And yet only one observation even comes close to assessing their abilities – in their brief existence of less than a year of live performances and a 5-song EP to their name, Givers have effectively imprinted themselves in the memories of everybody that has had the pleasure of seeing them perform.
Just take a look at the press and feedback regarding their recent circuit opening with the Dirty Projectors, an opportunity that has opened eyes and dropped jaws regarding this young, Louisiana-based quintet. Blending sunbursts of calypso, red-hot Cajun/zydeco, afro-pop and rock music, the band is joy incarnate. Not to mention, they have the tightness and precision of ten-year veterans.
Givers’ performance at the Parish on Friday was further proof of their continued dominance of the stage. This is a band that is making true believers of everybody who listens to them, and that was confirmed by the small crowd who tightened into a woven net of dancing heads around the stage, some of which even had their faces painted reminiscent of vocalist/percussionist/
This music is hand-crafted for body movin’. Opening song “Up Up Up” is a four-minute epic that veers from South African mbaqanga and zydeco into vocal harmonies reminiscent of Annuals, takes a sharp turn into a Thin Lizzy-inspired guitar-heavy bridge, and ultimately ascends into the hip-shaking stratosphere as the band chants, “up up up!” Needless to say, you’d have to be heavily sedated to sit still through this stuff.
“Up Up Up”, along with the rest of the band’s near-perfect self-titled EP, was completely represented and perfectly executed at the Parish, along with several other songs that you can probably expect to find on the band’s first full-length album, to be ready next spring. These songs offered a heavy dose of duel-percussionist madness between Lamson and drummer Kirby Campbell, along with eye-crossing guitar licks by Taylor Guarisco that recall the Dirty Projectors’ Dave Longstreth.
The whole Givers set was a sugary blizzard of chaotic bliss, but one song that broke the mold was the frenetic punk rocker “Wanna Want It”, which saw Lamson and Guarisco switch from their typically crystalline singing style into a nasally snarl while a menacing bass line paced behind them. The song could have fit perfectly on The Dead Weather’s Horehound and provided a cold, hard shell to the band’s warm, creamy center.
If Givers are at a pivotal crossroad in their lives as a professional band, they are running headlong into the path of success. At the risk of gushing, I may have never seen a band in such an early stage of development demonstrate such a complete mastery of its craft. Every step they have taken so far has been a calculated victory. Consider the Parish their latest.
