Okkervil River Live @ Mad Hatter

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April 28, 2008 |

Last Thursday night I made sure to head down to Covington for the Okkervil River show for several reasons. First of which was that the band do not seem to play in Cincinnati (have they ever?) or at least have not in years. And in recent years, but appreciation of the band has grown in leaps and bounds. I was hopelessly addicted to both Black Sheep Boy and the Black Sheep Boy Appendix and was equally blown away by their 2007 album The Stage Names. And after hearing Will and some of the band play in the WOXY.com lounge earlier that afternoon, I knew that passing up this show would be a big mistake.

I arrived at the venue after one great local band (Wussy) was finished with their set and was making way for another great local band, Turnbull ACs. Turnbull sounded great and I was almost as impressed with Dan Mecher’s 1990 Cincinnati Reds World Champs t-shirt as I was with the songs. Great stuff on both counts.

Okkervil River took the stage next, sporting a new lineup that includes Wrens guitarist Charles Bissel. Charles recently came on board after longtime Okkervil River guitarist Brian Cassidy decided to give up touring to focus on his family. Being a big fan of The Wrens, I found this to be a great fit and Charles jelled with the rest of the band as if he had been playing with them for years.

I found Will Sheff to be much more animated on stage than what I guess I had expected or conjured up in my own mind. Admittedly I guess I thought maybe he would don the melodramatic attitude that covered Black Sheep Boy and just fake his way through the more uptempo tunes of The Stage Names, but that was not so at all. Will bounced around stage and seemed to be having a great time throughout the night, and the energy was pretty contagious amongst the band as well.

After a great set of songs from The Stage Names, Black Sheep Boy and more, Will and Charles treated us to a re-interpretation of a song from Down The River Of Golden Dreams, “It Ends With A Fall.” Charles had been covering the song during solo shows and I guess Will got wind of that and they have been playing it together since Charles joined the touring lineup. The band then left the stage, only to see Will come back in less than a minutes time and admit that the venue did not really work for the traditional curtain call, so he would just return for the encore right away. He did a few songs on his acoustic guitar, then the band re-joined him and finished off a great set.

The crowd was dissapointingly light however again, sad to say. Another great band nearing the peak of thier success and Cincinnati yawns. Oh well, their loss….

In closing, I urge you to check out the WOXY.com lounge act Okkervil River performed last week, you can download the whole thing below. I was fortunate enough to host the interview and had a great time doing so. Within their set is the song I mentioned in this review with Charles Bissell and a great acoustic version of “A Hand To Take Hold Of The Scene” as well as a new song, “Lost Coastlines.”

Okkervil River - Live On WOXY.com