Last Night: The Walkmen At Fitzgerald's
The Walkmen
Photos by Jim Bricker
Fitzgerald's
March 3, 2011
Walk yourself on over to our slideshow to see more pics from the concert.
"Play the rock, already!" yelled an impatient spectator toward the empty Fitzgerald's stage. Fans at Thursday's sold-out show (an understatement) were awaiting New York rockers The Walkmen - and impatiently so, evidently.
Touring in support of their sixth album, 2010's Lisbon, The Walkmen took the stage fashionably late and fashionable in general; they looked like well-groomed members of a prep-school elite who just happen to moonlight as gritty garage-rockers.
We spoke with Walkmen organist Walter Martin earlier this week about the resurgence of popularity Lisbon has seemed to bring the band. It's always tough for bands to follow-up on such a strong debut album; The Walkmen's impressive 2002 debut Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone quickly turned even the most critical indie heads.
Pressures and expectations abounded, but The Walkmen still managed to pull off an equally successful sophomore album with 2004's Bows + Arrows, but they lost some of that newbie momentum in the mid-'00s; it was 2008's You & Me that restored some of the hype that, so far, Lisbon is only reinforcing. 
The band took the stage eased and smiling, but was quickly zoned into music-making-mode as the brooding red backlight cast ominous tones on their otherwise dapper white button-downs and khaki suit-coats. Lisbon track "Blue As Your Blood" opened the set, frontman Hamilton Leithauser showcasing his familiar fixed microphone death-grip and hunched stance.
"Thank you for being here with us tonight," he said to the rowdy crowd, before swiftly delving into Lisbon's "Angela Surf City."
While the set drew most liberally from Lisbon, it spanned the band's decade-long history (with the exception of 2006's A Hundred Miles Off, which was noticeably absent from the set list).
You & Me was frequently visited with songs like "On the Water" and "Canadian Girl," during which Leithauser introduced each band member. They even revisited their 2001 self-titled EP with "Summer Stage," a song which best demonstrates Leithauser's vocal ability and distinctively frenetic style - he screams while somehow remaining in key.
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