On Friday, Sept. 19, the Capitol Square was alive with music as Madison enjoyed the final installment of this year’s Live on King Street concert series, featuring Seattle indie-folk band The Head and the Heart, with support from Bare Mutants and Count This Penny. The weather was perfect for the occasion; a cool evening with temperatures in the low sixties helped usher in the fall and allowed concertgoers to showcase their best sweaters, flannel shirts and beards.
Count This Penny, a Madison-native folk group led by Amanda and Allen Rigell, opened the show and greeted the gathering crowd with a balanced set featuring upbeat folk anthems as well as slow, emotional ballads that brought out their apparent southern influence, especially in Amanda’s singing.
I was enamored especially by the energy of Count This Penny’s faster songs, such as “Medicine,” a song carried by a driving, forceful tempo, giving its minor key an interesting sense of emotional urgency that reminds me of alternative folk artists like Frank Turner whom I have fallen in love with over the years. Amanda and Allen Rigell shared very finely tuned vocal harmonies that lent even more emotional drive to Count This Penny’s set.
As the sun finished setting behind the stage, Bare Mutants stepped up to bring an interesting change of pace to the show. Easily the most energetic band on the bill, Bare Mutants’ sound extends beyond the typical prototype of “indie rock.” Their use of laid-back synth melodies and a shaking tambourine hinted at a psychedelic influence. However, their songs were laden with grungy, distorted guitar lines, reverb-heavy vocals and their sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek lyrics reminded me of the new surge of surf-rock bands that has hit the scene over the last couple years. Bare Mutants’ performance “I Suck At Life” made me feel like I was listening to some sort of hybrid between The Doors and Wavves.
This, to me, was refreshing and I believe that the risks that Bare Mutants have taken were successful in creating a unique and intriguing sound.
When The Head and the Heart took the stage, the crowd had been growing steadily for hours, and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard was packed. The crowd was backed up all the way to the Capitol Square. It was definitely a great idea on the part of the event’s organizers to move the concert from King Street, its original location.
Despite the large turnout, however, a very relaxed and comfortable crowd set the stage for a mellow and intimate show. The Head and the Heart opened with “Cats and Dogs,” the opening track from their 2010 self-titled album. I found the song was a great way to open the set, starting with a shaker and building into an upbeat tune with extremely catchy vocals, tight instrumentals and impressive harmonies from the band’s two vocalists.
I was happy with the band’s decision to go straight from “Cats and Dogs” into “Couer d’Alene,” the next track on their self-titled album. The transition is perfect on the album and translated well in their live show, moving seamlessly from the building energy of the first song to the bouncing, driving piano and guitar melody that had the whole crowd bobbing their heads and tapping their feet. The band continued with this energy, playing many upbeat tunes from both their self-titled album and 2013’s Let’s Be Still. Stylistic differences from one song to the next allowed each member of the band to showcase their talent.
I was extremely impressed by the technical skill of pianist Kenny Hensley on “Ghosts,” which features a jazzy and haunting piano melody with bouncing chords and a walking bass line from the pianist’s left hand. The pleasant vibes of the night culminated with the band’s closing song “Rivers and Roads.” The band slowed it down one last time with mellow acoustic verses, while also giving the crowd one last chance to sing and rejoice to the song’s chorus.
Ultimately, Live On King Street proved itself to be a great event for our city that I hope continues in the coming years. The crowd was pleasant and peaceful, and the show was a great way for Madison to finish off a great summer of music.
