Head and the Heart highlight of Big Snow
WLUM-FM (102.1) goes all out for its annual Big Snow Show bashes each December. So for night one of two Friday at the Rave’s Eagles Ballroom, there were not one, not two, but three headliners — the Head and the Heart, Fitz and the Tantrums and Jimmy Eat World — each playing full-hour sets.
All three bands happen to be at significant crossroads in their careers, although that didn’t inherently translate to significant sets Friday.
Fifteen years after its blockbuster “Bleed American” album, Jimmy Eat World, the first headliner up Friday, has received its best reviews since its prime for this fall’s adventurous “Integrity Blues.” Realizing its commercial peak has come and gone — “American” hits “The Middle” and “Sweetness” will always be the set crowd pleasers, as they were Friday — the band deserves credit for challenging itself beyond its emo and alternative rock comfort zone. Trouble is, brooding “Blues” track “Get Right” was the wrong opener Friday, and large pockets of the chatty crowd were indifferent for several subsequent songs — even during a rarely-played rendition of the band’s “Last Christmas” cover.
“That was fun to do,” frontman Jim Adkins dryly said after “Christmas,” like he’d just unwrapped a lump of coal. But soon the band played “Blues” song “Pass The Baby,” with the angst-ridden synthesizer giving way to a surprisingly aggressive hard rock finish. You could tell Jimmy Eat World was having fun shocking the audience, and the crowd enjoyed it, too.
Fitz and the Tantrums largely abandoned its retro-soul origins on its pop-radio-chasing selftitled third album this June and was slapped with rough reviews. The album, and the set Friday, leaned heavily on overprocessed synthesizer hooks and dumb lyrics. (One example: “It’s complicated/When we get naked/But I can take it” on “Complicated.”)
Fortunately Fitz hasn’t completely forsaken its original organic appeal live. Even “Complicated” found redemption Friday with James King’s speedy, squealing sax solo. The new album’s lead single “HandClap” may be idiotic, with frontman Michael Fitzpatrick singing about making people’s hands clap, and proceeding to clap his hands a lot, but King’s sax again gave the performance some snap, as did Noelle Scaggs’ enthusiastic scat-singing. Still, the show highlight remains first single “Moneygrabber,” with Fitzpatrick still convincing fans to squat before the climax, and humorously chastising anyone in the crowd not literally bending to his will.
The best set came last. Like Fitz, folk revival act the Head and the Heart aimed to broaden its appeal on this fall’s “Signs of Light,” its first on a major label. That meant cheap moves like a “la la” singalong on lead single “All We Ever Knew,” but the song admirably possesses more musical complexity than many Mumford & Sons and Lumineers hits, especially live, with Charity Rose Thielen’s uplifting violin leading the way.
While the band’s expanded on the grandeur, it’s even stronger with intimacy. Singing “Down in the Valley” Friday, Jonathan Russell brought his voice down to a whisper, and thousands of fans followed his lead, the hush prompting a stunning second of silence in a full ballroom.