Straylight Run reviewed

Straylight Run
Metro, Chicago
Thursday, June 14, 2007

It might seem like an imposing paradox, but Thursday night at the Metro Straylight Run demonstrated how to straddle the line between bombast or pomp and a clearly visible and always vulnerable staggering sense of earnestness.

That is to say the straight-faced and straight-laced vibe of the evening was apparent straightaway, in the fragile-enough but winding lament “The Words We Say.” From there, the energy level continued to build. Songs like the instrumental-oriented “A Slow Descent” excelled under the group’s impassioned and impressive playing and thrived in a live setting. Elsewhere, however, the comparatively safe and relatively uninspired “Soon We’ll Be Living In The Future” managed to keep the evening’s momentum going, but accomplished little else.

At times the group’s performing proved more engaging than certain song selections. Which was understandable, as Straylight exhibited an impressive sort of freeform choreography in the continual, and often mid-song, instrument swaps. Between the five members onstage, at any given point, some combination of two or three guitars, including an acoustic, two keyboards, and one-and-a-half drum sets were in play, not to speak anything of the seemingly endless harmonies at work throughout, wrapping themselves around the constantly changing environment, it was easy to see how the group’s onstage agendas were as much a show in and of themselves as the performances of Straylight songs.

Disappointingly, if not noticeably absent, was much of the bleak vibe found on earlier Straylight material, most noticeably 2005’s Prepare To Be Wrong EP. In fact, it wasn’t until the evening’s closer, “Hands In The Sky (Big Shot),” that the true troubled tone that first attracted so many to Straylight Run surfaced. A deceptively slow and low-key opening soon gave way to a handclap that marked the arrival of the evening’s darkest and most ominous moment. As the song built to a breakdown, with vocalists John Nolan and Michelle DaRosa screaming and ominously muttering a nearly engulfed quiet rant, respectively, it served as an undeniable reminder that Straylight carry some big, tormented weight behind them. As the song crashed down around them, each member exited the stage individually until only Nolan remained among waves of feedback.

With the show time at around the 50-minute mark, it seemed poor planning, not to mention somewhat of a tease, for the show to end just as the spectacle began. As the crowd cautiously waited for an encore that didn’t come, it became apparent that for a band to spend the majority of their time onstage building to some destination, it’s a pretty sour ending to leave just upon arrival. Here’s hoping next time the group delivers compelling, not just merely competent material throughout their whole set, instead of just at the end.

— Jaime de’Medici

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly