I have to admit that I was hoping that Blitzen Trapper would be playing in “The Void” at Canopy Thursday night so I could be clever and write about how they “destroyed the void.” But it just wasn’t meant to be and I was stuck watching them on a bigger stage with better sound. I guess you win some, you lose some.
The night opened up with Pearly Gate Music (Zach Tillman) who I had apparently seen back in April at the Kalyx Center in Monticello. On that night, Tillman opened the Daytrotter Barnstormer show, which included Nathaniel Rateliff, Free Energy, Delta Spirit, and Ra Ra Riot. I felt a sense of pretentiousness in April when I saw him perform (how is that even feasible in a barn?), so I was a little wary going into it.
The only difference last night was that Tillman was not accompanied by his (what I assume is/was) his girlfriend who sang a few notes and gave him googly eyes during his Barnstormer set. Also, he was now in a much bigger room, for which his music is not necessarily well suited. During his set, Tillman tried to joke about those who needed to make sure the song was over before clapping and even rescinded his “thank you[s]” to those who talked during his songs. He even managed to insult the audience when discussing his approach in performing the songs live. “If anybody is familiar with the record, which I seriously doubt…” You get the idea. If they were jokes they definitely didn’t have that feel. Even his cover of The Kinks’ “Lola” fell flat, distinguishable from his other songs only by those familiar lyrics I’ve heard hundreds of times. Apparently I just wasn’t cool enough to get it.
Blitzen Trapper was a hit with me and the crowd was overjoyed now that they had a full band and full beards on stage (Tillman sports a ‘stache and someone in the crowd asked where his beard was during his set). The show picked up about halfway through the set when lead man Eric Early brought out the banjo for “The Tree.” Things only got better from there with Early’s fervent harmonica work on “Below the Hurricane” and “Silver Moon.”
The rest of the band took a break after “Silver Moon” and Early performed “The Man Who Would Speak True,” followed by a new song called “Takin’ it Easy Too Long,” which he performed with the crowd’s favorite band member, guitarist Marty Marquis, playing skull-shaped rattle. The full band returned to turn it up another notch, performing the title track from their breakout Furr, which propelled the show into the rockiness (it wasn’t shaky, just rockin’) part of the night. “Furr” was followed by “Dragon’s Song” (my favorite of the night), “Sadie,” and “Sleepytime in the Western World,” which all worked the crowd into a bit of a frenzy. The crowd chanted for more songs and more “Marty” so the band ripped through “Saturday Night” and “Big Black Bird.” The pair was an excellent encore but didn’t pack the power that the previous four songs had; however, the crowd left pleased and “the void” is still intact.