Show: Augustines
Date: February 11, 2014
Venue: The Troubadour
City: West Hollywood, CA
Augustines
Photos by Nicolas Bates
Written by Dan Sinclair
Here at West Hollywood’s famous Troubadour, it’s time to kick off 2014 in live music for photographer Mr. Nicolas Bates and your humble writer. Oh, and what a start it is with New York City’s Augustines in town. Even Julia Stiles thinks so. I saw her stumbling around, looking for the ladies’ room only moments before Augustines took stage.
Frontman Billy McCarthy waves before picking up his guitar. He’s wearing a fairly heavy wool coat. Isn’t he fucking warm in that thing? The multi-instrument-playing Eric Sanderson takes stage, also bundled up in a winter jacket. Drummer Rob Allen seems to be the only smart one with his T-shirt and jeans.
Augustines waste little time and go headlong into, well, “Headlong Into the Abyss.” It was McCarthy’s raspy, passionate vocals over the hypnotic, almost dreamy music, driven hard by the steady bass drum on this very song that turned yours truly onto Augustines a few years back, so I know at least one guy in the crowd who couldn’t be happier with the opening choice.
What’s even more impressive about Augustines is how much better everything is live! The passion you hear in McCarthy’s voice and lyrics can be seen in every inch of his face throughout the entire performance. The pure talent as musicians both McCarthy and Sanderson possess is on full display in a way that a studio album just can’t do proper justice. And give Mr. Allen his props, too. I’m pretty sure my heart has adjusted its rhythm to his pounding bass thumps.
After the Troubadour’s appreciative screams die down a little, Billy says, “We’re Augustines from New York City. Hello.” This has got to be much easier than saying “We’re We Are Augustines,” and most likely the reason “We Are” was dropped from the band’s name between rookie and sophomore albums. He then goes on to say, “This song’s about a church,” and I’m pretty sure almost everyone present recognized “Chapel Song” right away and started screaming again, happy to hear to hear another song off Rise Ye Sunken Ships.
Billy loses his coat. “It’s fucking warm in here.” Mm-hmm, told you. Some girl yells, “Take it off!” to which he replies, “You don’t have to tell me twice!” And the band really seems to appreciate the support. Billy asks the packed house, “What is this, a Tuesday? That’s so cool so many of you came out, thanks so much!”
He dedicates the first song off their new self-titled album “Cruel City” to anyone from New York, before Sanderson switches to keyboards for “Juarez.” It’s during this song where I notice a tall brunette woman who dances hard to every beat and shouts out every word. She even adds some jumping for the chorus of “Lord, I see red and it’s storming in my head/I’ve got cathedrals in my ears and I think my daddy’s dead.”
After the rare song, “Ballad of a Patient Man,” a woman buys the band whiskey. And she makes sure that everyone gets one. “The third one’s for the drummer!” McCarthy makes sure to deliver said drink to the thirsty Allen.
Next up is a very cool slow version of “Philadelphia,” followed by “Kid, You’re on Your Own.” Then right before “Strange Days,” McCarthy mentions that he went to bed the other night with wet underwear, but never quite explains how exactly they got that way. Strange days indeed… Augustines closes out the set with stellar renditions of “Walkabout” and “Nothing to Lose but Your Head.”
McCarthy returns alone for the encore to play “Now You Are Free.” Sanderson picks up an acoustic guitar and joins his bandmate up who sings “East Los Angeles” without a microphone. The crowd goes insane for the up-close-and-personal performance.
Things get electric again as Augustines play “a dancing song” in “Hold on to Anything,” before finishing the evening with one of their best in “Book of James.” The last song is a tribute to McCarthy’s brother James who took his own life after struggling for many years with schizophrenia. “And here lies my green eyes/Rolled back in my head but they’re alive/And all the words can all get spoken/ Just know we tried/And you’re forgiven.”
Thank you, Augustines, for a fucking brilliant kick off into 2014!