The Acorn brought its thoughtful travelogues to the Hi-Dive on Tuesday. Photo from .
A front from the north entered the on Tuesday night with Canada’s and headliner , alongside Portland’s . It was an easy night of listening and a window to the newest hot-young-things coming into focus in the ever-so-experimental indie music scene.
Casey Mecija and her sister Jennifer began the night with their band Ohbijou. The girls played off each other all night with their humor, instruments and Casey’s adolescent, Feist-type vocals. The backing band was full-bodied, adding violin, electric piano and other harmonic undertones to the bass and guitar. Based on the quality of vocals as well as the bursting, high-power orchestral-pop, this band is going to wow the blogosphere.
Next up was the well-reviewed, highly talked about Shaky Hands. The music was a bit lackluster when the band would took crowd-pleasing turns with their more college-rock sounds. But Shaky Hands maintained impressive energy during the set, and frontman Nick Delffs carries the songs great distances with his David Gray-inspired vocals.
Finally, Ottawa-based band the Acorn finished out the night with their brand of innovative, popular folk-rock. Vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist Rolf Klausener lead his tribe and the audience through a grand atmosphere of story-telling.
Most of the songs were off their latest release, “Glory Hope Mountain,” out in March on Paper Bag Records. The biographical album is based on the life of Klausener’s Honduran mother, Gloria Esperanza Montoya, and the story of her escape to Canada. When hearing the music you get a sense of cross-country traveling, the tempo and momentum playing like a steady train ride.
There is a sense of well-controlled, syncopated, Appalachian folk-style rhythm that puts this band ahead. Each member was his own one-man-band. The instrument swapping throughout the set was a spectacle all its own when members changed from guitar to ukulele back to guitar, alongside two percussionists that exerted their energy among high-hats, shakers or other noise makers.
The songs that reached great heights included “Low Gravity,” “Crooked Legs” and particularly “The Flood Part 1,” in which Klaunsener exhaled about his mother: “The rushing river rattlesnakes your legs, you lick your lips and paddle for the levee, the sinking banks are sifting through your teeth… you’d love to wash this summer from your memory.” The compositions were wholesome, the lyrics were mini-chronicles and the harmonies brought us back to Sufjan Stevens. At the end of the night you felt refreshed — and well traveled.
Lisa Gedgaudas is a Denver writer and regular Reverb contributor.
