By: David Schultz
Photo via CWK MySpace Page.

The Easter holiday celebrates rebirth and a renewal of faith. In line with the holiday, Cold War Kids' three-night sold-out run of shows at New York City's Bowery Ballroom spanning Good Friday through Easter Monday served to restore anyone's flagging faith in rock and roll, providing a veritable feast for any soul starved for substantial musical sustenance. Before their sets, the physically unimposing Cold War Kids easily blended with the crowd, attracting very little attention while they mingled with friends. Once on stage though, they change identities, shedding their relatively mild-mannered, unassuming personas and transforming into possessed supermen.

It's hard to imagine this band playing with more passion or conviction. They are as serious as a heart attack. Over a weekend's worth of shows, not once did any one of the Kids crack a smile on stage. Whether he's ripping off guitar riffs, banging away at a stray cymbal or howling some manic backing vocals, Jonnie Russell continuously wreaks havoc on the stage. Bassist Matt Maust matches his intensity and the two tirelessly prowl the stage in an effort to prove the concept of perpetual motion. When Nathan Willett breaks free from the mike or the piano and joins them in bounding frenetically about the stage, their fervor infects the crowd. If Matt Aviero weren't anchored to the drum kit, often using a maraca and anything else at his disposal as a drumstick, he would surely be moshing with them as well.



When Willett takes to the piano, he brings a combination of raucous cabaret and Randy Newman style storytelling. Relating hard-luck tales of vagabonds and scoundrels from their appropriately titled debut album Robbers and Cowards, CWK offered a pair of relatively new songs which they previewed during this winter's New York residency. In introducing "Every Valley Is Not A Lake" and "Golden Gate Jumpers," Willett gave a little insight into the stories or scenarios underlying the songs. If Green Day can move from a self-flagellating ode like "Longview" to a conceptual classic like American Idiot in ten years, look for Cold War Kids to craft a thematically-tied, modern-day masterpiece to sit alongside Who classics like Tommy and Quadrophenia.

The maturation of the band has been illuminating to watch as they are developing genuine concert set pieces. Maust's opening bass line from "Hang Me Up To Dry" gets instant recognition and a rowdy response and Willett gets a lot of help voicing the words of his apologetic alcoholic in "We Used To Vacation." Tom Waits' mournful "Dirt In The Ground" has become a poignant lead-in to the hopeless antipathy underscoring "Hospital Beds" In contrast to the understated backing on lap steel on restrained numbers like "Robbers" and "Pregnant," the members of Delta Spirit and Tokyo Police Club helped close the weekend shows with anarchistic glee. Returning to the stage with drums, bottles, cookie sheets and anything else they could grab, the opening acts provided the rowdy chain-gang percussion for "St. John." The chaotic backing gave new purpose to the vocals: Willett barking out the white-boy rap verses with fierce precision and Russell, straining at the confines of playing piano, hitting the high-pitched background vocals with impassioned zeal.

Cold War Kids' Bowery Ballroom shows were a pure blessing for all who could get their hands on the rapidly disappearing tickets. As some bands grow and play larger rooms, their effect gets lost in the spacious venues. As their SXSW set at La Zona Rosa proved, CWK are more than ready for bigger rooms. Heaven help the band brave enough to slot Cold War Kids as their opening act on a stadium tour, they are going to have a hard act to follow.

Labels: Cold War Kids, Live Reviews