London’s Treetop Flyers have already had a mention on one of our mixtapes, and Thursday night I got to see the five piece who sound more like kindred spirits of ’70s Laurel Canyon rock in action at Glasslands. Reid Morrison, Tomer Danan, Laurie Sherman, Sam Beer, and Matthew Starritt all displayed brilliant musicianship, and the set was chock full of extra jam-outs of their windows-rolled-down-while-driving-on-an-open-highway country soul grooves. By the end of the show, the band had everyone in the house picking up what they were putting down, including a couple girls doing a salsa-like dance in the very front. Treetop Flyers are so refined and nuanced in their sound that they even evoke some Latin flavor out of the Brooklyn hipsters.
In the beginning, however, Treetop Flyers may have expected a little more from the audience than what they got, and they did a couple things that forced me to cross my arms. I understand that when a band plays a lovely ballad, they want every aspect that they’ve worked hard on to ring out and touch everyone’s ears. But please, don’t shush me. Don’t put me in a dark venue with a bar, a crowd of people, loud music, and then tell me to “shhhhh.” No. Rock n’ Roll doesn’t work that way for me. “Is It All Worth It” is indeed a lovely ballad, which may have worked perfectly just a tad later in the set, after they really won the crowd over – because they did really win the crowd over. But when a high energy is being built up from ripping through a handful of rollicking rock tunes, the crowd isn’t ready to just instantly calm down and give their silent, undivided attention. This action gave Treetop Flyers an air of self-righteousness that didn’t feel entirely deserved just yet. It’s not like people weren’t there to see them, in fact the majority of the crowd seemed to come out of genuine interest in the band, and were already captured, rendering the sudden oppression largely unnecessary.
Besides, after the song had started to speak for itself, they had everyone’s attention anyway. Singer Reid Morrison’s voice had the power to cut through loud and clear with minimal accompaniment, with guitarist Sam Beer taking lead vocals on the chorus. When they really hit their stride in the song is when four of the five bandmembers started to sing together. When they ended on a four-part vocal harmony that blended splendidly, they had our undivided attention, with no shushing needed.
Once that was out of the way, they played lead single “Houses Are Burning” to much excitement, and other good energy tunes like “She’s Gotta Run” and title track ‘The Mountain Moves” off their debut album, out now on Partisan Records. Morrison was barefoot the whole time, jamming out on his acoustic and singing in his perfectly on pitch, country-tinged voice. The band definitely milked their finale for all it was worth, pulling one of those moves where it feels like they are slowing down to a stop so people start clapping, but then – nope! They bring the extended jam right back ‘round again to another peak on closer “Haunted House,” finally ending on a great note to much applause.
