Review: Akron/Family Enlightens Ithaca 09.16.09
ITHACA, NY | This week Ithaca’s Castaways hosted one of the most enlightened bands making waves in the indie and jam circuits. The 150 fans that packed the venue were treated to an hour and a half of schizophrenic, juxtaposed, genre-busting melodies from the Akron/Family.
Prior to hitting the stage that night, word was Akron/Family, a trio of guitar, bass, drums and a Carrot-Top chest of fun instruments, was known for their shows constantly building in energy. As the crowd would come to find out, Ithaca’s show wasn’t to be any different.
Following a 6 minute spacey, intimate “Meek Warrior”, Akron/Family delved right into one of their newest and catchiest tracks “River” from their newest album Set ‘em wild, Set me Free. Sure to keep anyone in attendance singing the song’s chorus “You and I and a flame make three,” in any grocery line, “River” really took off mid-song as Slaraffenland’s Danish 4-horn section blared in with a New Orleans big band brand of boisterous brass and provided the night’s first real jolt of what this band was capable of.
Stream live recording of “Alps”:
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Also standing true to an apparent oath to the crescendo and decrescendo, Akron/Family and it’s “Big Band” for the tour began to weave their harmonious yet dysfunctional path through peaks and valleys right into one of the favorite offerings of the evening, “Alps & The Orange Evergreen” also off Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free. Not particularly renowned for their voices, bassist Mile’s Seaton smooth, lofty voice perfectly mirrored the Paul Simon-esque whimsical ballad recalling pastoral observations in Switzerland. Perhaps it was the more streamlined countenance of the once heavily bearded bassist, or maybe, just maybe, a compliment not previously bestowed from the array of recent write-ups the band has garnered.
From there, it was time to bring it down once again. If only, for a brief song “Gravely Mountains”, and then segueing stubbornly into the ”Lake Song” which briefly beckoned images of calm Trappist Monks before once again, getting slapped across the face with a driving drum beat from drummer Dana Janssen and Olinsky dropping some nasty psychedelic/punk rock chords. Wait a minute… Now the sound is swaying into slightly distorted and raw. Akron/Family’s modus operandi was beginning to get clearer and clearer: Beauty and serenity are only truly appreciated when chaos is riding shotgun. Energized bedlam is best served hot with a cold plate of melodic pauses.
Akron/Family continued this approach during the 16-min “Lake Song” into what seemed like a “drums” jam, with either member of the trio pounding on some form of tightened rawhide. Not yet stopping for applause, Akron/Family was showing why they are considered ‘a band that jams’, despite the modest physical response from the stalwart crowd in attendance that night. After nearly 10 minutes of noisy interludes, trombone shouts and guitar distortion, Janssen began reigning in the rhythm with his high-hat and Seaton found a groove before again, dropping the mood down to basically what an orchestra sounds like when warming up.
While exploring those sonic peaks and valleys, Akron/Family also manages to succeed where other bands fail. Lyrically and vocally, as in “Lake Song,” when the band ironically sings, “Just when you’ve finally forgotten you’re alive, your light? That’s exactly when they send you back. It comes together only to fall apart.
From “Lake Song/drums”, Akron/Family began the real peak of their visit to Ithaca during a a 20-min jam “Ed is a Portal” (from the album Love is Simple) which consisted of Walt Whitman meeting Ginsberg, Antibalas meeting the Flaming Lips and some Avant Garde jazz meeting down home bluegrass. This, while being overlayed with a feverish guitar and drum lick and occasional hoots, hollers, tribal yips, horns, flutes, communal chants…even some Olinsky zany and happy barks of “Good Morning! Good Morning!” So pleasantly confused, the crowd finally began to move their feet during the exploration and the dance floor at Ithaca’s Castaways was back to the pouncing it’s used to. The jam here really cannot be understated. While crazy, sometimes non-sensical and unguided, this particular Akron exploration was sure as hell, the most fun of the night.
Also renowned for their crowd interaction, this tribal jam really slugged the sluggish crowd with everything it had. At one point, Olinsky dropped to his knees and hid under a sheet, still berating ‘Bellvue-like’ babblings. Many responded with their applause or head bobbing and Akron/Family, once again, pulled the carpet out and sent the jam into orbit with some lo-fi spaciness. As evidenced from the jam, Akron/Family is like seeing 15 different acts at Bonnaroo on one stage at one time.
Following the “Ed is a Portal”/ “The Immortals” jam, Akron/Family and their adopted “Big Band” (Danish group Slaraffenland) then began to tie a bow on the evening with a real funky helping of “Everyone is Guilty”. Sure to be a great song to see at a festival, the song’s driving happiness and Janssen’s quick drumming really fueled the high-paced jam reminiscent of Fela Kuti and at times, Stevie Wonder. The 11-minute sprint seemed to fly by and as the song came to a saunter and the crowd began also, once again, slow their pace. As if, after just an hour, everyone in attendance were Pavlov’s Dogs to Akron/Family’s crescendo/decrescendo puppeteering of pace. For the final minutes of the Set closing “Everyone will Shine.”, Akron lent a helping hand down the slide before the song he song calmly faded into the acapella final chorus of “The sun will shine And I won’t hide. Sun will shine. I won’t hide.Sun will shine And I, I won’t hide.” The trio wrapped it up with an encore of “Crickets”. True to its name, it closed out the night in fitting fashion. Nice and easy.
Observing fans and curious attendees upon their exit and listening to chatter as the lone taper in attendance broke down, people were satisfied. They were happy. They were relaxed. A rare reprieve from the high-paced dub/reggae or jamband that frequents Ithaca, Akron/Family maintained a constant force throughout the evening in Ithaca. Not by strong-arming its fans into getting loaded and dancing their asses off, rather Akron/Family’s force coming in forms of passive resistance, masked mind-control or multidimensional disorientation.
Akron/Family is currently about to wrap up their US tour in the Midwest with Jeffrey Lewis and Slaraffenland before embarking overseas for some European dates.
For full set list and show download on The Archive. Special thanks to Joe Catlin for taping the show!
Akron/Family Tour Dates
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