2004 and ‘The Rat’, the claustrophobic rant that threatened to break the Walkmen into the mainstream, seems an afterthought all these years later. The media attention has dissipated and offers to perform on shows like Letterman and The O.C. are no longer forthcoming.
The sparse Glasgow crowd clearly didn’t buy in to the hype surrounding ‘The Rat’ or the album that spawned it ‘Bows and Arrows’. An atmosphere of indifference isn’t punctured by the arrival, stealthily, of the band on stage. Not that this lack of popular enthusiasm has hindered them. Almost unnoticed The Walkmen have been able to work without the pressure of expectation, free from fashion and fickle tastes. As a result each of the Washington band’s six consistently excellent albums represents a subtle but confident evolution in their sound.
Tonight was largely a showcase for tracks from their latest release ‘Lisbon’ and they don’t disappoint. They can be menacing and bitter, singer Hamilton Leithauser sounding like a man haunted by perpetual heartbreak (“never saw you coming” he wails during the brooding ‘All Hands And The Cook’). Drummer Matt Barricks stark, repetitive, post-punk style drives the songs rather than underpinning them and gives ‘Blue As Your Blood’ and ‘Stranded’ a eerie air of ceremony.
The gloom is lifted regularly though. The guitars slip from stifling to sparkling, Leithauser turns his angst laden rasp into a brash, whiskey soaked croon on ‘Victory’ and evokes Shane McGowan swapping stories for pints in a busy bar in the whimsical ‘Woe Is Me’.
Despite old favourite ‘The Rat’ seeming strangely subdued the crowed seemed quietly impressed and the band left to far more appreciative applause than they had appeared to. Here’s hoping a few commit the time needed to let the albums slip under the skin, those that do will be richly rewarded.
Words by Alan Thomson
