Monday, January 17, 2011

The Love Language play ferocious set at the Cradle

All photos by Kevin Norris
Now that we've covered the Archers of Loaf reunion, it's time to get back to the reason a sold out crowd gathered at the Cat's Cradle on Saturday night in the first place. Local superstars The Love Language took the stage before a crowd of ravenous young fans ready to hear their favorite band.

Unlike the Libraries album release show at the Cradle in July 2010 which felt like a jubilant hometown gig, this show felt more urgent and angsty. The band experimented with different arrangements of songs and sounded like a band who had spent the better part of 2010 on the road perfecting their chops.

The set featured a new song which was quite different from the band's usual lovelorn pop. Much like the tone of the band's current live show, the new song is edgier and has a bit more of a punk growl. The band also covered a groovy little tune by The Sonics called "Strychnine" (Thanks for the title Jason).

The set was split evenly between the band's self-titled album and Libraries, and featured the return of a few old classics in the second encore. The band pulled out "Stars" and "Graycourt," which were a little rough at times, but still sounded great.

The Love Language are preparing for another big tour in the Spring with fellow Merge Records artist Telekinesis. If you want to see them before they head off, they'll be playing the Blind Tiger in Greensboro on February 4 (that's the rescheduled date for the show originally planned for January 22).

Raleigh quartet Cellar Seas opened the show with a short set of run-of-the-mill pop rock tunes. It was a nice set, but certainly nothing to write home about, so I'll leave it there.

The Love Language set list
Blue Angel
Lalita
Nocturne
Anthophobia
Providence
Manteo
Two Rabbits
Sparxxx
Heart To Tell
This Room
(new song)
Strychnine (The Sonics cover)
Horophones
----------
Wilmont
This Blood is Our Own
Brittany's Back
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Stars
Graycourt

The Love Language








Cellar Seas


3 comments:

Chris Beacham said...

Yep, what a night! Archers of Loaf and then a great Love Language show. Much better than the Ackland Museum Show at Top of the Hill which was still quite good.

I've upload an iPhone vid of "Brittany's Back" from Libraries. There is only so much you can do with an iPhone but you can get the idea.

Anonymous said...

The Sonics song is called Strychnine

Brother John said...

Great set by BOTH bands. Seeing them together really makes the LL seem like heirs apparent to Triangle music throne. I remember the glory years Chapel Hill indie from the 90s (though I wasn't living here at the time), and though bands today are less "indie-guitar" and more inclined to delve into pop, roots, and genre-bending (all good things), this seemed like a passing of the indie torch.

Not that Archers should by any means hang it up... MORE! MORE!!

I've also posted video and pictures of both sets (click my name). The bad news: no vid of LL, as my battery was giving out. The good news: better pics of LL than of Archers, as I was figuring out a new camera as the night wore on.