Live Review: American Football with David Bazan at Neptune Theatre 2/26/16

Halfway through the American Football show at Neptune Theatre, the band is tuning up guitars and getting ready to launch into another number, and there's a small, singular moment of silence. Then, from somewhere in the throng of voices, someone yells out, "I still can't believe this is even happening!". The crowd laughs, as does the band, as they look around at each other, nodding and smiling for a good moment. It's true! It's still completely nuts that this is happening. One album, released in September of 1999, taking 15 years to gain enough traction for a proper world tour, then those guys embarking on said tour and selling out every date they play. In the days of streaming services and false-nostalgia, it's so pleasant to be here young and old, regardless of how many of those 15 years you waited, to all get to see one of our favorite albums played in Seattle for the very first time. In 2016, American Football enter their third year of part-time reunion. In the first, they played Chicago, New York, and LA. In the second, they ventured to the UK and to Japan to play various festivals. And in their third, they finally make it to the Northwest, and later on, up into Canada. Unlike 99% of crowd heckling, in this one instance, the comment is welcome with open arms. It's a good reminder of how special this evening to everyone, and to treasure every second of it. Here tonight with David Bazan, American Football gave their Seattle fans the show they've always wanted.Tonight marks the third time David Bazan has opened for American Football. The prior two times were in December of 2014, when the band played their first dates back in California. So at this point, the two feel very complimentary to each other. But where American Football stuck to the classics, Bazan threw only new material at his audience here tonight. While a few of the selections were culled from his Monthly series, most of the tunes were from an upcoming electronic record, which Bazan says is due out in May (get excited!!!!!!). But electronic was not the mode of choice for the three-piece set here tonight. Instead, Bazan jumped on the bass ("because it's fucking fun", he remarked upon questioning) with Andy Fitts on lead guitar instead. The resulting interpolations of electronic tracks made for one of the rawest, most visceral Bazan shows in recent history. Fitts' guitar noodlings were only accents - the majority of the sound on stage was vocal and drum, with bass to guide the tone. The simple arrangement was a keen reminder of how brilliant of a songwriter Bazan is - zero frills are necessary for his stealing your heart. While the majority of the night was dedicated to celebrating a fantastic album 15 years past, Bazan gave us all reason to look forward to May for a great new one on the horizon.

David Bazan:

I'm sure there are dozens of solid explanations or critical analyses out there, but for the sake of the show tonight, here's my explanation on why American Football has garnered such a reverence. There's a perfect balance between two hyperbolic elements that makes the band's music so captivating. Without either element A or B, American Football would still be a great emo band, albeit for different reasons than we remember them now. But with both, they become something larger than themselves, something worth waiting 15 years to see just to celebrate it with a diverse room full of people who came throughout that time period to the same conclusion: this is a project that I can connect to.

The first element of these is the band's choice of musical style and instrumentation. To put American Football under the same generic emo banner as many of their contemporaries (even some of their other related projects) undersells the grand story of how much of a spontaneous combustion the project really was. Listening to the LP for the first time, you kind of get the feeling that this is just a couple dudes who all know each other from different places or projects, getting together in a practice studio to see what happens. Guitarist Steve Holmes and drummer Steve Lamos got together to jam, and then Mike Kinsella brought the remnant ideas of Joan of Arc with him, taking lead on the vocals messing around the with the dual guitar math rock sound that Steve Reich made famous. Together, they threw in whatever they had around (trumpet, tambourine, Wurlitzer, etc.), and made a record happen. This feeling remains as the three work with each other on stage. Holmes still gives Mike crap when he starts in on the vocals for "Summer Ends" too late. Kinsella gives live queues to Lamos to loop the hook on "Honestly?" when it's taking longer than he thought to tune. Then on "The 7's", the band's fantastic 7/4 time live oddyssey of a track, Lamos screams out time queues over his drums so that all of the moving parts can tackle the counterpoint at once. Even with Neptune full to the gills, it feels like we're right back in the sudio, listening to friends play the record they made to each other, and we just get to watch. There's a great reason why the album's cover is just a picture of an illuminated house: the crowd feels like they are on the outside looking in at something wonderful.

The second element, of course, is the song content. While Kinsella swears that he may honestly not remember all those teenage feelings, it's evident that the ones having to do with growing up and out of adolescence still resonate in the songs herein. There's something bottled with American Football that you can't bottle easily - that feeling of transition even while you might not be ready for what's coming. Kinsella's thoughts about leaving on "Summer Ends" and staying on "Stay Home" - all of these went out the window as the band's members all moved to different places after the record's release. The funny thing is, we've all been there, moving apart and staying close and trying to keep our relationships afloat in a constant sea of change. But it's songs like these that we go back to, not to remember the tumult, but to realize the distance we've come in the time between. It's reasons like these that the crowd is hushed to a silence as Holmes breaks into the intro to "Stay Home", and after four minutes of cascading juxtaposition, every member of the audience sings along softly, as to not cover up Kinsella's smile. "That's life", he sings, "it's so, so short".

The band leaves briefly and returns for an encore, playing the album's lead track "Never Meant" last. A single cloud off to the left of the crowd goes up and a funny smell fills the air. There's one person here who waited some amount of 15 years for this moment, and then it will be gone. That's life, it's so, so short. But it's worth it, even if sometimes you have to wait.

American Football: