Review: Blind Pilot at Iota

by guest blogger Wes

Katie sent me on assignment to cover the Blind Pilot show at IOTA last Friday. I was excited to go to the show for a couple reasons. First, I believe they are a band with true “staying power,” meaning their CD has stayed on repeat in my car for over a month now, thanks in part to Liz’s requests.

Second, they favor fairly simple arrangements, with songs driven primarily by gentle drums and acoustic guitar. Their press shots and bio just feature two guys, guitarist/singer Israel Nebeker and drummer Ryan Dobrowski. However, horns and strings and other textures worked in throughout the album suggest there are more than two musicians involved. I was curious to see how an acoustic guitar/drum duo might fare in the live setting.
Third, I wanted to see if we could indeed get into the show. Blind Pilot has been building a pretty good buzz lately. I spotted them on one of those download cards at Starbucks. They’ve been tapped by the Decemberists to open an upcoming tour and NPR picked them as one of the top three bands to see at SXSW out of 1800.  We got there early to eat dinner just to be safe. IOTA’s catfish wrap is darn good.

Opening band Ezra Furman and the Harpoons sounded pretty good from what we could hear from the restaurant side. They play solid jangly pop rock with some great harmonica playing.

When we made it to the other side, I took a look at the stage and realized there would be more than a duo taking the stage. Blind Pilot is actually a six-piece band with a unique lineup: acoustic guitar and drums as mentioned, plus upright bass, xylophone, and multi-instrumentalists on banjo/ukulele and trumpet/keyboard. They took the stage and I realized that this unique instrumentation was no accident. Blind Pilot play straightforward folk-pop songs that are understated but undeniably compelling. The textures that they are able to create with this lineup really shimmer and they are infectious, hence their CD being stuck in my car still.

Israel remarked that they were excited to be able to play a longer set than usual; they played every song off their 11-song debut and maybe 2 or 3 new ones.  Banjo player Kati Claborn led a beautiful Utah Phillips cover.  Their total set was still only about 50 minutes. We left around 11:15, which is unusually early for a trip to IOTA.

The audience came to hear the songs and they actually listened quietly, which doesn’t always happen on a Friday night. The club was packed, though not as ridiculously packed as I had anticipated. Blind Pilot played their songs with great care and great enthusiasm. The most touching and surprising moment of the night, judging by the expression on Israel’s face, may have been when the crowd, 3,000 miles away from the band’s hometown of Portland, sang loud enough to drown out his vocals on “One Red Thread.”

Also, their west coast tour in the fall was on bicycles: http://www.blindpilotmovie.com/

[photo via Blind Pilot Music on Flickr]