Paper Bird Soars Over San Francisco’s Bottom of the Hill

San Francisco – Up-and-coming Colorado folk-favorites Paper Bird swooped down over the San Francisco Bay to play an intimate, fifteen-song set at the cozy rock venue Bottom of the Hill. They were joined by touring rock buddies The Americans, as well as the local psych/jam outfit Blisses B.

Paper Bird are in the middle of a west coast jaunt in support of their 2013 LP Rooms, as well some new material which they happily experimented with to the delight of the throngs of fans snuggled into the pint-sized venue. Paper Bird is also trying out its new diminished lineup, two-thirds of which is made up of pairs of siblings (a lá The National): two of the bands three main vocalists are sisters (Esme and Genevieve Patterson), and the third vocalist (Sarah Anderson) has drummer Mark Anderson for a brother. The band is rounded out with guitarist Paul DeHaven and multi-instrumentalist Caleb Summeril. There is no leader of this band- they work effortlessly like a collective, which shows through their eclectic work.

As the band took to the stage, the tiny venue erupted with applause and jubilance under the twinkly lights and decorative crystal bulbs that hung overhead. The cozy nature of the venue—plus the fire that was glowing in the fireplace towards the rear—added to the atmosphere. The band opened with the thumping, soulful sounds of the Rooms track “Blood and Bones.” After a quick hello to the crowd and a check on the date, they slid vibrantly into the second track, a new one called “Stories Told.” The funky track is reminiscent of the brass bands in New Orleans, replacing the bursting vocals in place of trombones. The third song was the sleepy, lullaby-like “Blue Sparks” off the band’s debut album Anything Nameless and Joymaking, followed by the equally tender Rooms track “Just Sing.”

The set continued with three more new tracks, starting with the spacey, melancholy “Find It.” The song sounded like if Sunny Day Real Estate one day decided to go folk, boasting viscous harmonies and a fiery re-entry towards the end. Next came “Couldn’t Sleep,” a song that artfully uses the sudden juxtaposition of silence and music, to make the noise following the silence sound all the more voluminous. The final was “Feeling of Falling,” which started out with fluttery vocals set upon breezy guitar alongside Sarah Anderson’s trumpet, adding to the build and flow of the song. Another song from their debut LP, “Pennies” followed the three new tracks.

The band’s banter with the audience was great: at one point in the show, Sarah Anderson stopped to blow some bubbles, and the band even lit a candle for an audience member’s birthday. The energy continued as Sarah Anderson and her brother Mark flew into a speedy cover of Dave Matthews Band’s “Ants Marching,” before seamlessly transitioning into Rooms track “Through These Days” after a playful verse and chorus from the DMB track.

Members of the opening band The Americans joined Paper Bird for a rendition of the American Standard-sounding “Hold It Down.” They followed by the older track “St. Louis,” which carefully blends the sounds of 60s British Invasion with country Western flare. The band paid tribute to John Prine with a cover of his classic track “Angel From Montgomery.”

The finale of the main set was the lead single off of Rooms, “As I Am,” filled with canary-like vocals and a building guitar and percussion that lead to a hearty call-and-response section towards the end. As the band left the stage, the crowd called encore, and Paper Bird obliged with a stripped down, almost a capella version of Rooms’ closing track “Come Down.”

Colorado is a state that has rich heritage in its natural surroundings, and it shows in some of the music that comes from the Rocky Mountain State. Each song from the state’s native Paper Bird sounded so organic and so natural that it could have come from the rocks and trees themselves. Paper Bird feels like home, like a hearth with a fire, and it’s a comfort not often found today. It is a relish to hear it after all.

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Corey Bell

Corey Bell is no stranger to music.Having spent the better part of the past decade at concerts and music festivals around the globe, he finds he is most at home in the company of live music.Originally a native of New England, he has since taken residence in New York and New Orleans, and now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.He achieved his Bachelor of Arts from Goddard College in Vermont via an undergraduate study entitled “Sonic Highways: Musical Immersion on the Roads of America," in which he explores the interactions between music, natural environment, and emotion while travelling along the scenic byways and highways of the United States.His graduate thesis, “Eighty Thousand’s Company,” features essays regarding the historical and socio-economic facets of contemporary festival culture intertwined with personal narrative stories of his experiences thereof.He is the former editor of Art Nouveau Magazine and holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from California College of the Arts.