New Artist: The Growlers
These days in the Lower East Side, it’s getting harder and harder to tell who the rock stars and who the audience members are. All the fans try to out-cool the performers, and the performers try to look like they don’t care. Last Thursday at Piano’s, however, it was unmistakably obvious during the opener’s set who was about to jump on stage: The Growlers, who looked like they just raided Janis Joplin’s closet.
I am often skeptical of bands that so clearly mold their image, especially when said band is from Orange County, but the Growlers shut my busy brain up within two songs. These California boys echoed their home state’s psychedelic rock heroes, sounding like San Francisco 1965 more-so than 1969, sounding lean and rootsy like very early Dead without the jamming, or the original Moby Grape lineup.
Most of the songs had a distinct same-ishness, with nearly every song having a buoyant, melodic verse contrasted with a minor-key section that typically switched time signatures. This is not a very complex musical device, and it should have bored me, but it didn’t only because of how perfectly they nailed their sound. Well, that and because of the folding chairs being heaved at the audience periodically.
My guess is that the Growlers’ favorite band is Brian Jonestown Massacre, except they don’t know which one of them is Anton Newcombe. Four of the five band members would consistently expound on nothing just to hear their own voice between each song until the drummer, clearly the band’s task-master, would count off the beat for the next song. Having four Antons in a band is not necessarily a recipe for long-lasting success (at least with a consistent lineup), but the Growlers have managed to sign to Everloving Records (Metric, Cornelius, Ben Harper) and survive a rigorous touring schedule. Perhaps there’s hope in this world for a band filled with rock stars…