Thursday night was a trip of the musically-induced variety, when The Fresh & Onlys and Quilt played Music Hall of Williamsburg. The Fresh & Onlys are one of those bands where it’s easy not to realize exactly how good they are until experienced live. With introspective lyrics set to heavily hazy psych pop jams, they grooved and rocked through many of their new songs off the recently released Long Slow Dance LP. They splattered in a few of their older songs too, like my favorite, “Waterfall.”
They’re all great performers, but it’s probably best to be right in front of guitarist Wymond Miles. Everyone in the band rocks out, but Miles goes the proverbial extra mile. It’s almost like his guitar plays itself, and he just holds on to it for dear life. Front man Tim Cohen, who also performs as Magic Trick, has a great ease behind the microphone. He gave shout outs to his local friends attending the show, and also informed the crowd that “this is our favorite city,” which is probably one of the most no-fail statements to make in any city to get an enthusiastic reaction from the audience, but I like to think that when people say that about NYC they actually mean it. Throughout the set the energy between band and crowd had been building exponentially, and by the end, kids were breaking out into a soft mosh on the not-to-overcrowded Music Hall floor. After the peak hit with the encore song, Cohen set his guitar down, gave a wave, and him and the rest of the guys nonchalantly left the stage to loud whoops and applause.
Quilt set the mood really well right before, performing what was the most rollicking set I’ve seen them play so far. Music Hall of Williamsburg is also the biggest stage I’ve seen them on, so they had more than enough room to move. The songs seemed to echo the sentiment of the bigger physical space, seeming to stretch out and zone out a little longer, while always snapping right back into place when they needed to. The vocal harmonies between guitarist Shane Butler, guitarist/keyboardist Anna Rochinski, and drummer John Andrews also sounded tighter than ever, playing point and counter-point while sounding perfectly in tune. They’ve also gotten a tad bit heavier with their psychedelic folk meandering closer to some dirging monster twang. They also had some new tunes up their sleeves, and they ended on a heavy psych jam with Butler’s guitar sounding more like a bass through the amp, really digging down. Not gonna lie, I like where all this is going. When they have a new release come out, I’ll be all over it.
The Fresh & Onlys and Quilt have several more tour dates together. You can listen to the Fresh & Onlys’ new album in its entirety on Spotify, or just go ahead and grab it from Mexican Summer. Keep up with Quilt on Facebook and Twitter.
