The last line of the first song on Bishop Allen's debut album is "my charm school made me ready for today." For the purposes of this article, "today" is last Friday, when the band played Tokyo Rose, and "Charm School" is in fact the title of their debut album. The significance? The magnitude of the album itself practically ensured a solid live performance, and Friday's show surpassed the level of presentation that even the album could suggest.
After two unremarkable opening bands, Bishop Allen finally took stage to a sizeable crowd that, although seemingly largely unfamiliar with much of the band's repertoire, quickly became absorbed. At times rock, a hint of punk, always quirky and progressively more engaging as the night wore on, they were -- in a word -- poptastic.
Officially from Brooklyn, Christian Rudder (guitar, vocals) and Justin Rice (vocals) forged the beginnings of what is now Bishop Allen while they were classmates at Harvard. Discovering their common interests after both attending a Jawbreaker concert, the first glimmer of Bishop Allen -- incidentally, the name of a street in Cambridge -- appeared on the horizon. Prior to the band, previous creative endeavors had included thespark.com, a Web site well known to most college students for, among other things, its personality quizzes; appropriately, the album notes include a quiz as well.
The aforementioned creativity, similar musical predilections and collaborative songwriting -- Rudder concentrates on music, while Rice's affinity is lyrics -- seem a formula quite likely to bring the band success, particularly now in conjunction with bassist Bonnie Karin and drummer Margaret Miller.
And already, success they have achieved. Playing sizeable venues along the Northern East Coast, Bishop Allen already has attained quite a following most recently demonstrated by acclaim in Rolling Stone and a number one ranking on George Mason University's college station, WGMU.
Friday's concert, however, placed the band in a situation where they were essentially unknown, having not played as far south as Charlottesville since the album was recorded in Lynchburg. Notable, therefore, was the level of comfort the band possessed and the rapport that immediately was established with the crowd, even with only limited stage banter.
This perhaps is most important: Throughout the entire set, nothing about the performance was forced. There were no contrived attempts at being artsy or trendy. There were no gimmicks, and no apologies for the lack thereof. Their stage presence -- particularly that of Rice and Rudder E was not built on anything in particular that they did, but was simply inherent to their personas. The lack of pretension was what was most striking; at the risk of sounding trite, each member of the group seemed to be not only natural, but a natural.
This is particularly relevant in light of the fact that both Karin and Miller have had very little training and experience on their respective instruments. The skill level that they displayed on Friday night certainly did not correspond to their limited careers with those instruments. Karin, while a trained cellist, learned bass guitar mere months ago, but in concert consistently handled her instrument as though she had been playing for a much greater amount of time. Remarkable steadiness and control also marked Miller's drumming. Both women have immense potential for furthering the music of Bishop Allen as additional nuances to their playing continue to develop.
Perhaps not entirely unrelated, the songs themselves are not horribly complex in terms of their lyrical content or musical structure, but it is the underlying subtlety that is so alluring to the listener. From the background female voice (Karin), added to contrast with Rice's vocals, to the utilization of various percussive instruments, paradox lies in the fact that these additions are glaringly blatant, but quietly provide the extra color that the music needs.
The show on Friday, however, belonged to Rice. Throughout the course of the entire show, Rice remained animated and evocative of rock's more charismatic frontmen. Simultaneously channeling Lennon with the character of new wave, Rice garnished the songs, employing various vocal affectations in his singing (most notably in "Busted Heart") and playing off of Rudder to create a thorough ambiance that was, well, charming. Maintaining remarkable articulatory clarity even through the lyrically fast paced introduction to "Eve of Destruction," Rice backed up his colorful stage persona with considerable talent.
Rudder, in contrast, took a more intense approach in conveying his equal musical aptitude, keenly embellishing songs that would otherwise suffer from an overly simplistic chord structure.
For a band that only recently surpassed the single digits in terms of the shows that they've played together, Friday's performance showcased a band with surprising coherency and maturity, onewell prepared to tackle its six week tour this summer.
So we'll end with a review quiz:
You're given the opportunity to hear Bishop Allen, either on tour or in "Charm School." You a) check them out or b) don't.
And if you answered a): consider yourself lucky.
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