San Francisco – Trying to pin a label on the music of Bent Knee is like trying to effectively interpret the series finale of The Sopranos – you can get close but you’ll never figure out the exact meaning. Just what was Tony looking at before the screen went black? And why the hell were they playing “Don’t Stop Believing”?
Anyway…
Bent Knee makes music on a level of eccentric excellence that Frank Zappa would applaud by blending genres gleefully and incorporating so many diverse influences that it would be an exercise in futility attempting to list them all. So let’s exercise: you’ve got Bach jamming with Genesis, Danny Elfman locked in a fistfight with Bjork, The Residents buying Radiohead a drink or two at the bar. Does that make sense? Of course not. Now you know how I feel.
Based in Boston, you’d think it’d be easy for a band that met at the prestigious Berklee College of Music to resort to pretentiousness. The five members are all virtuosos, after all, and the more talented a group is the harder it seems to be to balance that line between creating genuine art and merely showing off. However, showing off in this case would be completely justified. Lead vocalist/keyboardist Courtney Swain has a simply tremendous voice. Drummer Gavin Wallace-Ailsworth rips fills that could make Neil Peart squirm in his seat. Bassist Jessica Kion delivers impressively seductive, slinky grooves. Guitarist Ben Levin is most likely from another planet because terrestrial terms can’t explain his technique. Violinist Chris Baum expresses everything from pure beauty to nightmarish howls with his instrument, and synth/SFX wizard Vince Welch adds layers of insanity to the already mind-altering productions. But no matter how strong the individual skills, they are always able to hold back when the song requires subtlety or a low-key approach.
While the tracks off their latest LP Shiny Eyed Babies have complex and dense sonic structures, they never come across as grandiloquent or weird just for the sake of weirdness. They pull it all off with natural grace, as if Bent Knee could sound no other way. Opener “Way Too Long” sets the tone as a precarious tight-rope walk dangled over the depths of utter chaos. It starts with a creeping beat, explodes with booming lead vocals, builds with horror film soundtrack strings and effects, and then climaxes in a way that can only be described as epic. Or incredible. Or mind-blowing. Okay, so there are a few words for it.
I saw Bent Knee live for the first time a year ago at the Brick & Mortar in San Francisco. My experience was a mix of slack-jawed wonder and wide-eyed terror. If the haunting melody of “In God We Trust” wasn’t crawling under my skin, then the engrossing ending of “Dry” was raising my blood pressure or the slow-burning “Battle Creek” was simmering in my skull. In between the maddening brilliance of their songs, the band would smile and wave at the audience, as if there was some inside joke us normal folks weren’t quite in on and could never possibly understand. Or, more likely, they were delighting in the secret to their astonishing music, one we will never figure out – not the crowds, not the music bloggers, not even the fellow musicians. Maybe the how or even the why isn’t important (but why did The Sopranos end like that??). All that really matters is that this music exists in the physical world and not just in the heads of a few truly special musicians, and we’re lucky enough to experience it.
The second time I saw Bent Knee live I still felt that same combination of wondrous awe and terror. This time, however, I was sharing a stage with the band. And… I had to play after them. Amplify that sense of terror a few notches and add a sprinkle of intimidation to the mix because there’s only one thought racing through your mind when you have to follow a band like Bent Knee: how the hell can you top that?
Tour dates and more info on Bent Knee can be found here.
Nick Schneider
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