N.B. Picture taken from the Lexington, January 2009
Long Beach, California five-piece the Crystal Antlers brought their swampy psych-rock to Cambridge on Tuesday. Following on from their explosive debut EP, the band released their debut full-release Tentacles to disappointingly luke-warm reviews, so it perhaps wasn't surprising that their set was rather light on Tentacles material, focusing much more on new songs from their forthcoming sophomore album.The new stuff was notably mellower, airier, and more melodic, with singer/bassist Johnny Bell not always resorting to shredding his vocal chords. There's no question that the band will need to display a greater range on their second album to regain some of the plaudits lost with Tentacles, but how this more toned down approach will work on record remains to be seen. Reassuringly though, the band played with the same vigour throughout, in particular live-wire percussionist Damian Edwards, who proceeded to get steadily more naked as the set wore on.
Ultimately though, it was the EP material which provided the highlights. The various ebbs and flows of A Thousand Eyes still make it the finest amalgamation of everything the Crystal Antlers do, whilst their scorched set-closer Parting Song For The Torn Sky demonstrates why the band should break the shackles of the 3-4 minute song more often.
All in all, it was an excellent performance from a band that finds itself at a difficult crossroads, but it remains hard to say just how well the Crystal Antlers will navigate it.
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