Cake Shop Does It Again, This Time With Valar

Valar_at_Cake_Shop

Cake Shop is quickly becoming one of my favorite places to hear new bands in New York. My first experience with the venue was back in January, when I saw Emil & FriendsRavens and Chimes and Old Monk, a night as fantastic as it was varied. Last night’s show reinforced my impression that Cake Shop isn’t afraid of taking a chance with bands of all experience levels and from all genres. And last night, one of these bands stole my heart.

Sydney-based Valar writes softly glistening, down-tempo dreams of songs. Frontman James Blackwood has a soft yet sharp voice that commands immediate attention. His guitar playing matching his voice exactly: twangy, yet somehow warm. Tim Parsons lays his sparse drumming squarely on the beat, forming an atmospheric, static background that nevertheless pulls the music forward. Murray Bunton has a soft touch on the keys, and his keyboard parts glide untroubled underneath Blackwood’s vocals. Blackwood’s broken falsetto is undoubtedly the star here, and as his voice guided me through Valar’s magnificent EP “We Have A Home Among the Trees,” I was left breathless.

For last night’s show at the cake shop, Blackwood had left the rest of the band back in Australia. Being alone on the small stage dimly lit by strings of Christmas lights further accentuated the loneliness and melancholy that are already a strong presence in Valar’s music. Although I was sorry to leave behind Parson’s drumming and Bunton’s keyboards, Blackwood’s bare one-man arrangements may have been even more magical than Valar at its recorded best. The basement of Cake Shop seemed to get smaller as the crowd gathered closer to the stage and leaned in close, hanging onto every word and to each beautiful curve of melodic contour.

Breakwater_II_at_Cake_Shop

The intimacy of Blackwood’s music was magnified by the set before him. Breakwater II is a very young Power Pop band. Playing at Cake Shop was obviously a big deal for them, and frontman Chris Popadapoulos was positively glowing. They had brought a posse of similarly young fans with them, many of whom knew the words to every song. The music itself was pretty rough – easy vocals and awkwardly slashing guitar playing were the norm– but the crowd lent an energy that I really dug. While the front half of the Cake Shop dance floor was going crazy, the back half simply didn’t know what the hell was going on. I made sure to stay towards the front.

Breakwater II’s guitarist (who’s name I was unable to find out – resources about this young band are, as you might expect, pretty slim) displayed a good deal of musicianship. His bank of effects pedals were put to good use, and his solos stuck out as the most enjoyable moments of Breakwater II’s set. Often, these solos stuck out of the texture like a sore thumb, too big and too unique to fit into Breakwater II’s song structure. In a way, though, this autonomy just made his solos that much more fun.

Blackwood-as-Valar will be back in New York this coming Tuesday, Feb. 15th in the upstairs room at Pianos. You can also buy We Have a Home Among the Trees, along with Valar’s prior releases, here. Catch him before he runs off to Australia – who knows when he’ll be back…