It’s strange what it takes to make a place really feel like home. After a year here in Champaign-Urbana—buying a house, getting a dog, joining a kickball team, becoming a regular at the market—it took a night surrounded by strangers, singing along to the band that defined my youth for me to pause in a swell of emotion and think, Damn, I’m so glad this is my town.
I can’t tell you what it is like for an objective listener to see Built to Spill play. I don’t know what it’s like to exist as a music lover without Built to Spill shaping my eardrums, my heartbeat, my pulse. There’s Nothing Wrong With Love was the album that changed everything for me, the first one I ever was immersed in, the first one that blew me away, the one that changed all my ideas about what music is and what I want it to do to me. It imprinted deep in my psyche at fifteen, and those early Built to Spill albums have a deeply emotional, deeply visceral effect on me. As such, it was an easy decision as to who to see in the Great Of Montreal/Built to Spill match-up. It was even easy to forgo Janelle Monae in favor of Common Loon and Revolt Revolt—I wanted to be front and center, totally immersed. I knew Built to Spill’s show would be phenomenal, and at Wednesday’s show I was a true disciple—front row, singing along to every word.
But before Built to Spill took over, we were treated to two excellent opening acts. Locals Common Loon started off the night to a small but rapidly building crowd, with a familiar set of guitar-driven, energetic rock. With just guitarist Robert Hirschfeld and drummer Matt Campbell, the depth and dimensionality of Common Loon’s songs always impresses me—I’m peering around the stage searching for other bandmates, wondering where the complexity is coming from. Their dreamy, warm, psychedelic rock was a comfortable opener for the night, warming up the crowd with local favorites.
Up next was ReVoltReVolt, a band I knew nothing about beyond a brief listen to one of their singles some time ago. Despite the absolutely inane spelling of their band name, I was immediately smitten. The trio had an infectious, boyish energy that spilled out into the Highdive, as they plunged forward into playful, punk-influenced rock. ReVoltReVolt has been traveling with Built to Spill for most of their fall tour, and the Iowa trio looked like precocious teenagers compared to the seasoned musicianship of Built to Spill. With ear-to-ear grins and gleeful energy they attacked their instruments, producing spirited, uncomplicated, high-energy rock. They love what they do, and it’s incredibly contagious.
Finally, Built to Spill was up. I’m always surprised to see them onstage setting up and checking their own gear while the crowd still mills around refilling drinks and barely noticing the nondescript guys wandering on and off stage. The band was equally uninterested in the crowd, calmly tweaking and tuning their instruments, making no attempts to grab or hold anyone’s attention.
Built to Spill are by no means showmen. They’re quiet, still, and except for Doug’s occasional show of appreciation, nearly silent between songs. Their stage presence was low-key, to say the least, and they all but ignored the persistent cries from the rabid fans hungry for a moment of acknowledgement. The band was inarguably here for the music, and the music delivered.
Without warning, they launched into “Strange”, the majestic, gritty opener from Ancient Melodies of the Future. The first familiar chords sent the crowd into cheers, and the powerful, layered electric guitar took over the Highdive, filling the room with sound and energy. Next up was “Randy Described Eternity”, a song that sounded downwright demure on Perfect From Now On compared to the ear-wrecking roar that it grew into at the Highdive. They followed with “Liar” from You In Reverse, letting Doug Martsch’s acoustic guitar lead the band into the easy-flowing, melodic tune.
Next came “Twin Falls” and “Some”, the seamless duo from There’s Nothing Wrong With Love that the crowd was thrilled for, with everyone anticipating the grimy crash of guitars at the start of “Some” with cheers and raised fists. The rest of the show was fairly standard faire for Built to Spill, with “Wherever You Go”, “Time Trap”, and “Distopian Dream Girl” rounding out the set, along with a cover of The Grateful Dead’s “Ripple” that felt right at home. For their final song, Built to Spill launched into the dreamy, sentimental “The Weather”, a lovely, soft song that builds into something epic.
After a few short minutes of incessant clapping and determined cheers, the band came back to finish out the night with a trio of personal favorites: “Made Up Dreams”, “Car”, and “Untrustable”. “Car” was the predictable crowd favorite, with fans shouting along to the lyrics and the girl beside me tearing up with emotion. Doug Martsch once said in an interview that he wished he could write songs about specific events; he just writes words that seem to fit well together. But this is the beauty of Built to Spill’s music—we’re all connecting with it in our own singular ways.
While Built to Spill drew from their five big albums—Keep It Like a Secret, There’s Nothing Wrong With Love, Perfect From Now On, Ancient Melodies of the Future, and You in Reverse—but stayed away from their newest album, There Is No Enemy, entirely, although their planned set list replaces “Made Up Dreams” and “Car” with There is No Enemy’s “Hindsight” and Keep It Like a Secret’s “Center of the Universe”, neither of which I remember the band playing. With the crowd singing along, maybe they wanted to end the night on a high note, playing the universally loved “Car” instead of a newer song that hasn’t quite had the time to prove its staying power. At any rate, the crowd left happy, and the band let up on their aloofness for a few minutes sign records and shake hands with their excited fans.
So yes, I came to the Highdive knowing Built to Spill wouldn’t disappoint. With a tremendous catalog of songs to choose from, how could they? Wednesday’s show was exactly the loud, melodic, epic show I anticipated, filled with the songs that worked their way into my head at fifteen and stayed lodged there ever since.
(All photos by Lisa Janes)