View the full photo set here.
From the lowest of lows, to the highest of highs: Noah & the Whale played a triumphant show at Irving Plaza, their third show in New York since the release of their third album, Last Night on Earth, in March. The band’s most recent album is as jubilant as their previous album, The First Days of Spring, was bleak. Speaking for myself, the freshness, optimism and youthful vigor of Last Night on Earth was sorely needed.
Noah & the Whale played a selection of songs from each of their albums, including many audience favorites. Charlie revealed that he usually introduces “My Door is Always Open” and “Wild Thing” as the “romantic” part of the set when he means that it’s really miserable. But the exhuberant “party portion” of the set soon followed, with the classic “Rocks and Daggers” and the audience doing a fist-pump in unison during the chorus of “Waiting for My Chance to Come.”
Why have I seen Noah & the Whale three other times? (All, I might add, at the Bowery — which mercifully doesn’t use strobe lighting, and where the acoustics are orders of magnitude better.) Their shows always serve as a pick-me-up — existentially, I mean — and leave me feeling like I can take to heart Charlie’s exhortation to “be brave, little champions” (“Just Me Before We Met”). That’s the very best kind of music.
View the full photo set here.
Setlist
Give a Little Love
Just Me Before We Met
Blue Skies
Give it All Back
Love of an Orchestra
Life is Life
Jocasta
The Line
My Door is Always Open
Wild Thing
Rocks & Daggers
Shape of My Heart
5 Years Time
Waiting for My Chance to Come
Tonight’s the Kind of Night
First Days of Spring
Encore:
Old Joy
L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. (with Bahamas)
[...] Noah & the Whale at Irving Plaza on June 18, 2011. View the CLOG post here. [...]