WERS 88.9 fm - Performance Wrap-Up: As Tall As Lions

November 19^th, 2009

"For my 26^th birthday [my band took me to this] interactive play, [which] was very percussive based music. I think that inspired a lot of the heavy percussion ideas," said Dan Nigro, front man for As Tall As Lions. Performing at Boston's House of Blues, the show did indeed kick off with heavy, driving percussion. Hailing from Long Island, New York, the sextet was opening for progressive rock band, Mutemath. Judging by the crowd's response, this proved a less than ideal match up.

As show time approached, there were gaps in the crowd. Not many people were there to see As Tall As Lions, and Nigro even mentioned, "I know you guys aren't here to see us." The group pushed forward, but the crowd wasn't buying it.

After the show, Nigro commented, "I felt that the crowd was a little less receptive than I remember Boston crowds being for us." That was surely the case, as those in attendance stood stoic. Unfortunately for As Tall As Lions, the gaps did not fill in as expected.

As well as dealing with a less-than-enthusiastic crowd, the band also experienced some extremely noticeable technical difficulties. The lead mic cut out, and the crowd sort of looked around, wondering what was going on. The sound went from booming and in your face to muddled and awkward.

This misfortune happened abruptly. It was as if Nigro was singing under water. "Apparently the speakers kept on cutting out, which I didn't know when we were playing," he confessed.  He added, "There were a couple of little offstage technical difficulties, [too]." Nigro ditched his mic and attempted to scream the words into the crowd.

Other than this mishap, As Tall As Lions did a decent job opening for Mutemath. Nigro's vocals mirrored that of Silverchair's Daniel Johns. This makes sense, because the group toured with Silverchair in the past. But unlike the matchup with Silverchair, Mutemath's intensity, experimental vibes and international following made them a tough act to open for.

However, the guys did their best to keep up with the headliner. If The Mars Volta, The Dissociatives, Bjork, and Broken Social Scene had a baby—it'd be named As Tall As Lions. They put on an extremely avant-garde show, and demonstrated their abilities as multi-instrumentalists.

What began as a four piece band turned into a six piece group, and Nigro attributes their ever-maturing sound to the band's additional members. "We're able to do more now. We're able to branch off." Commenting on the musician's ability to switch off instruments, Nigro added, "If I don't wanna play guitar for a song, I don't have to. I can focus on singing and [the others] can pick up. There's more room to deviate."

Deviate they did—at least they tried to do. As Tall As Lions had all of the potential in the world to perform an exceptional show, but seemed to fall into a formula of sorts. Each song began with heavy percussion and then faltered into the typical verse/chorus/verse format. In an attempt to defend their latest music, Nigro stated, "It is a little bit more progressive and a little bit less accessible, for lack of better words."

Although the band prides themselves on making great strides since their self-titled sophomore release, this wasn't extremely evident. They have made some progress with their sound—but it seemed that their desire to appeal less to the mainstream often led to a mess of overlapping sounds. It was an unfortunate observation, as the band does have the potential to form an experimental, cohesive sound.

In the meantime, Nigro revealed to WERS that, "Next year we are going to be doing a headlining tour, and we're also going to be traveling down to Central America to shoot a live DVD." As Tall As Lions are a fairly young act, not in age, but in development. There is no doubt that they've laid the foundation, but what's built upon that remains to be seen.

-By Jacquelin Voegtlin

-Photos by Shawn Brackbill