Seattle – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – there’s nothing quite like when a new band plays a show to their hometown. There’s something, dare I say, magical about the energy of a band’s show in the place where they were born and bred. The old friends, the initial fans, the personal pride that comes from a homecoming is just about as warm and as engaging as any family filled holiday (it is the season, after all). This was the exact encompassing feeling that Cave Singers delivered at the Neptune on November 30 in Seattle. Cave Singers might have been playing a big venue and now have that big-band status, but they played an intimate show that easily could have been one of their first basement shows – except, of course, for the fact that they’re now accompanied with profound production and orchestral friends.

Cave Singers can produce some pretty somber sounds, so the energy they play with isn’t your standard fast-driven kind. It is, rather, an energy of passion. It made for a wildly internal show where tears from audience members wouldn’t be a surprise. This isn’t to say that the entire set was subdued and quiet. The Seattle quartet is able to produce pulsing numbers that reinvigorate even the most pensive of crowds. Easy highlights of the set were “Canopy” (off of the band’s newest release, which has definitely brought them a more diverse fan-base) and “Northern Lights.”

“Northern Lights” (not to be confused with the Bowerbirds song with the same title) was easily the most harmonious piece of the night; I even hesitate to call it a track or song, because it had a composition more similar to a symphonic composition. A still came over the crowd. In this, the emotional strength of the band was revealed.

Cave Singer’s fourth album, Naomi, was released via Jagjagwar in spring of 2013, which in music time is long enough for them not to be touring on this release anymore. While this album might be the most diverse that they’ve produced (honing in on more of their post-punk origins; Cave Singers is, in fact, the partial reincarnation of Pretty Girls make Graves), the band’s popularity stems from their more folk-inspired sound and this is what they delivered for most of the night. There were banjos galore and the band’s biggest hit, “Swim Club” brought the aforementioned potential tears to a reality.

Photo By Mike Brooks