Concert Review: Death Vessel (by Jonathon Leibovic)

By the time their set picked up, neo-folk quartet Death Vessel had already lost most of my interest. Elegant, creamy-white vintage guitars and flashy red sunburst pick-guards couldn't make up for disappointingly mediocre songwriting at their Sept. 23 show at the Living Room. Self-consciously quirky instrumentation (including a string bass, toy maracas and an electric ukulele) failed to result in correspondingly quirky music. Frontman Joel Thibodeau's distinctive visual and vocal aesthetic took a backseat to his aloof stage presence. He continually requested a louder monitor in spite of his tendency to shy away from the mic, and remained inexplicably silent between songs except when he mentioned that the beer he was drinking, a Monsta Ale, wasn't quite cutting it.
Halfway through the set, though, multi-instrumentalist Don Larson started to steal the show. His shoegaze-tinted style mixed elements of Broken Social Scene, R.E.M. and Pink Floyd, infusing the otherwise lackluster songs with much-needed energy. Perhaps his only weaknesses were his abortive attempts at stand-up comedy and his love affair with the wah-wah pedal. But these sparse moments of solidity only threw the rest of Death Vessel's thin and unremarkable songwriting into starker contrast.
Fortunately, the real treat came immediately before the headlining band. Micah Blue Smaldone's haunting, hypnotic solo acoustic set required patience, but was ultimately far more satisfying than Death Vessel . Where Thibodeau was disturbingly disengaged from the audience, Smaldone captivated the crowd with his endearing presence, equal parts bashful self-awareness and tasteful virtuosity. Incidentally, he also played some of the most memorable melodies of the evening as the bassist for Death Vessel.
The Living Room is a charmingly squalid venue with a very good sound system; however, beware. Fliers claimed the show would start at 8 p.m., but doors didn't open until 8:30, nobody played until 9:30, and the three-band show wasn't over until 12:30 a.m.