Austin – “Are you going to ACL this year?” Since 2009, my answer was always “No.” I could never remember which day I’m supposed to spend refreshing the page for ticket sales, and I could never remember to save the money for scalped/second-hand tickets.

For the scatterbrained and the sweat-averse, the ACL Late Night circuit has been a godsend, as consolations go. This year’s restricted-but-solid lineup included a lot of great shows including, The Head and the Heart, playing Friday at Emo’s Austin.

The Head and the Heart have toured heavily this year, with appearances at Bumbershoot and Jimmy Fallon, playing relatively fresh material from last year’s sophomore record Let’s Be Still. The Seattle band is among the recent wave of indie folkers trying to exhume the rollick hidden in folk music (excerpt from my notes—“Not sure what it’s called, but sounds like that one Decemberists song”). They’re fond of songs that hold back at first, then build to full, crashing volume for the chorus and bridge. If you had only heard their records you could think this was a dramatic flourish. But live, this becomes a movement band, between the extra oomph in the drums and the energy of co-singer Josiah Johnson.

True to the “Late Night” moniker, the set began late and was a bit shorter than most would have liked. They started things off with “Shake,” a tap-tap bass drum that fully syncopates by mid-song with the addition of snares. Droning accompaniment fills out when the guitars kick in. They followed that up with “Homecoming Heroes,” a tune with less dynamic contrast between verses and choruses, but still enough impulse for Johnson to throw his hair back.

From there the band moved onto older material, with three songs off their first record; “Coeur d’Alene,” “Ghosts,” and “Honey Come Home.” The band changed a lot in the three years between their self-titled debut and Let’s Be Still. These three songs give synth-piano a more forward role, and tend to start out more aggressive. It calls back to the Avett Brothers’ I and Love and You, at the incipience of the indie folk thing.  “Coeur d’Alene” makes good use of classic backbeat and a great, skip-rhythm piano hook. “Ghosts” throws you off with an opening salvo of anxious minor chords that shift to a poppy chorus. It was easily my standout song for the night.

This part of the set could easily be pegged as Johnson’s show. With his hands free—these songs didn’t feature his guitar—he became the band’s true front man, and the projector of the band’s energy. I’m guessing this was the logic behind the setlist. After that Jonathon Russell’s softer, more confined delivery took over. The songs changed, starting pretty and quiet before building to the band’s favorite, an explosive chorus.

Often I wished they would linger more; “Winter Song” kept a good pace, with lyrics passing from Russell to violinist Charity Rose Thielen. The drums are restrained and the crescendo caps-out before it can overwhelm the lovely melody at the heart of the song. “Lost in my Mind” has some great attributes—a strum-y opening with reserved piano and well-delivered croons—that get squelched about two minutes in. They almost get through “Rivers and Roads” before giving in to the urges. Frequently they’re on the verge of winning me over, but it’s never sustained.

Here I have to cop to some reviewer bias: indie folk isn’t my first love. And this isn’t an “Amplifiers ruined Bob Dylan” kind of thing; I don’t have a lot of scruples about folk music. My beef here is that the band feels like they’re hedging their emotional bets, as if I need the volume and clatter to believe the lyrics—and as if that’s all I need.

There are cases where this works, though, and the encore featured songs with the balance I found lacking in a lot of their music. “Summertime” knows what it’s about from the beginning, with a bass riff, backbeats, and a glowing accordion. “Chasing a Ghost” is a crowd favorite, with no album appearances to date. It’s a case of the band taking its own advice—to just be still for a while.

The Head and the Heart have plenty of virtues; they’re good at what they do, and they’ve made a connection with a large audience. There’s good news if you’re one of those people—they’re a two weekend band; they’ll play another set at the festival next Saturday.

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Will Jukes

Will Jukes has lived in Texas his whole life. It doesn’t bother him as much as you’d think. A Houston native, he studied English at the University of Dallas before moving to Austin in search of the coveted “Grand Slam” of Texas residencies. He comes to music journalism from a broad reporting background and a deep love of music. The first songs he can remember hearing come from a mix tape his dad made in the early 90’s that included “Born to Run,”, “End of the Line,” by the Traveling Wilburys, the MTV Unplugged recording of Neil Young’s “Cowgirl in the Sand,”, and “The Highwayman,” by The Highwaymen. He has an enduring love for three of these songs. Over the years he has adored punk, post-punk, new wave, house, disco, 90’s alternative rock, 80’s anything, and Townes Van Zandt. He’s not sorry for liking New Order more than Joy Division.

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