Plants and Animals @ Mercury Lounge - 16 May 2008

With no room left to hide offstage Friday evening, Plants and Animals' bassist/guitarist Nicolas Basque instead huddled precariously behind a guitar cabinet as the adoring crowd cheered for an encore.

The move was purely symbolic; the crowd could easily see his Sideshow Bob mane tufting up from behind the amp, but the band still admirably improvised the whole classic disappearance/reappearance encore routine with what little material props they were given. The move was also metaphoric; the sight of Basque crouching behind an amp in lieu of retreating to a backstage oasis aptly summarized the experience of seeing Plants and Animals amidst the relative intimacy of Mercury Lounge. Which is to say this: their sound, songs, and performance could all well have obliterated a far larger venue.

From the opening strum of the epic "New Kind of Love" to rousing closer "Bye Bye Bye" - made all the MORE powerful and raw live without the layers of extra choral vocals heard on the album version - the band proved that three exceptional musicians playing three simple instruments (with an occasional touch of keys and autoharp) would have been enough to fill the cavernous space of Mercury's big brother Webster Hall down the street. It was remarkable to hear the intricately constructed anthems of Parc Avenue come to life with little more than two guitars and drums, as the bottom end of the band's sound was somehow filled and expanded for the duration of the set in which Basque didn't even play bass.

And while the set didn't progress as smoothly as singer/guitarist Warren Spicer probably would have liked (he broke strings on two different guitars on two consecutive songs), the band's infectious good cheer and enthusiasm, coupled with Matthew "The Woodman" Woodley's drum solo approximation of Bel Biv Devoe's "Poison", kept things upbeat and made for an even more memorable experience. It was a perfect end to a week of nerding out to Parc Avenue nonstop and made me instantly regret not going to see them at Union Hall on Saturday (did anyone make it out to that show?). Check out more pics of our most recent Band of the Week after the jump...











Listen: "Faerie Dance"

See also:
- Band of the Week: Plants and Animals

See Plants and Animals Live:
01 Jun - Haarlem, Netherlands @ Patronaat
02 Jun - Utrecht, Netherlands @ Ekko (with Sunset Rubdown)
03 Jun - Njmegen, Netherlands @ Dornrosje (with the Do)
04 Jun - Tilburg, Netherlands @ O13
05 Jun - Dublin, Ireland @ Crawdaddy
06 Jun - Glasgow, Scotland @ The Captain’s Rest
07 Jun - Edinburgh, Scotland @ Wee Red Bar
09 Jun - London, UK @ Big Chill House
13 Jun - Lausanne, Switzerland @ Le Romandie
14 Jun - Paris, France @ Mains D’Ouevre
23 Jun - Seattle, WA @ Nectar
24 Jun - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
25 Jun - San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
27 Jun - Pomona, CA @ Glass House
28 Jun - Los Angeles, CA @ Spaceland (with Panther)
10 Jul - Ottawa, Ontario @ Ottawa Blues Festival
16 Jul - Sherbrooke, Quebec @ La Telephone Rouge
18 Jul - Yellowknife, Northwest Territories @ Folk on the Rocks Festival
19 Jul - Yellowknife, Northwest Territories @ Folk on the Rocks Festival
25 Jul - Guelph, Ontario @ Hillside Music Festival
26 Jul - Guelph, Ontario @ Hillside Music Festival
03 Aug - Montreal, Quebec @ Osheaga Festival (Parc Jean Drapeau)
09 Aug - Marysville, Ontario @ Wolfe Island Musicfest
17 Aug - Salmon Arm, British Columbia @ Salmon Arm Festival

Visit Plants and Animals on MySpace.