Among other things, Matt Berninger is known for making a live show count. Whether it's embodying the introverted distance of his work with The National in straightjacket contortions or diving into furious anger, throwing wine glasses into the air and crushing them under his feet, in all things, Berninger is a vivacious wonder. The bitter veritas of his work forces the listener in the live setting to venture to a place where Matt is an attainable, relatable traveler. The relating experience, among seas of love and the squalor Victoria, is unforgettable for both its joy and its dismay. All this being said, in announcing his partnership with Brent Knopf as EL VY as the easy-going swinger who gave us the highly danceable, radio-ready "Return To The Moon", some amount of reservation towards the band's live incarnation could be understandable. But thankfully, in EL VY's first tour, all of this hesitation is quelled in a spectacular show of dynamic. While the record was good, the live show makes gives EL VY the full visual embodiment it needs to convey its message fully. Matt and Brent show off a side of them we've yet to see in any of their respective projects, be it The National, Menomena, or Ramona Falls. EL VY is entirely its own entity, and it's one that we welcome gladly alongside the other projects of these two veterans of the scene. Together with rising Seattle stars Hibou, EL VY made their first Seattle appearance and third show ever a total charmer.It's been a pretty crazy year for Hibou (Peter Michel). His Barsuk debut dropped earlier this year, following by tons of praise and plenty of dates to feed the massive swell of demand. Just a few weeks ago, a tour invite came from one Big Freedia, who took Hibou across the south over the course of nine dates (to announce, Hibou remixed "Excuse", and the result was incredible, obviously), ending just last week. Now, Hibou is back on the west coast with EL VY, with airhorns still loaded into the drum pads, though it's hard to say if the bounce scene has had a huge impact on Michel's sound. Hibou showed off their stuff in fine form, playing nearly all of their recent record, including a particularly rousing rendition of "Sunder". Beginning to end, Hibou put down a fantastic set.
Hibou:
If you followed the EL VY album rollout at all, you probably noticed that all of the album's single videos had the same director, Matt's brother Tom Berninger. The videos also all featured the same overly familiar sense of normality that sprinkled Tom's film Mistaken For Strangers (which featured The National but isn't really about The National, etc. etc.). In Mistaken For Strangers, the Berninger brothers' interactions with each other give a grounded nature to the often heady music of The National. It put a man behind the curtain of the massive, mystical wizard, if you will. With EL VY, the focus of interaction isn't as much Matt and Tom as it is Matt and Brent Knopf, but through his videos, Tom gives us the same, highly relatable human approach. With Mistaken For Strangers, this approach was a supplement. With EL VY, this approach is a preface. EL VY comes on stage and Matt walks to the microphone. "We don't have any prepared remarks", he laughs nervously, "so we are just going to get set up and start". As the band goes starts with album closer "Careless", you realize, there's no need for this sentence, really. This is what we all assumed. And yet, this is 100% true to the Matt we met in Mistaken for Strangers - a kind of awkward, avoidant human being given the job title of rock god. In EL VY, he's forcing himself to live into it without remorse. The result is at first uncomfortable, but once it really sinks in, it's magic.
EL VY burn through their whole record over the course of an hour. Bits and pieces of Matt as we know him slip through. "Careless" is a heartbreaking catharsis. On "Happiness, Missouri", he paces madly, throwing arms into the air at Brent and the band, asking for more and more and more. On "Need A Friend", he screams the last chorus with a fury. But elsewhere, he has a blast taking everything a bit more casually. After "Happiness" fades, he and Brent tell a story about the Portland show where Matt sang the chorus in the wrong key. Matt's nieces are at the show, and after the delightfully crass "I'm The Man To Be", he tells them to forget everything they heard and apologizes to his sister for writing her into a dirty song. Brent and Matt have perfect synergy on the record's title track and the whole place is in a dancing frenzy. He remarks about writing radio songs before breaking into a real radio song, EL VY's cover of Fine Young Cannibals classic "She Drives Me Crazy". The band finishes and everybody laughs. It's a treat to be able to just celebrate the merits of incredible songwriting and camaraderie on stage. In EL VY, alongside gods like Brent Knopf and Wye Oak drummer Andy Stack, Matt satirizes middle age in incredible form. The man before us isn't the suited god with wine bottle in hand working against himself to put on the show of a lifetime. Rather, he's relaxed in all white holding a red cup Red Bull vodka, and he can hang. We need EL VY to understand the man who is Matt Berninger, and anyone who gets to catch this show live is in for a treat like no other.
EL VY:
EL VY's Return to the Moon is out now on 4AD Records.
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