Seattle indie-folk/rock band The Head and The Heart revved up an exuberant, young crowd on Thursday. (Review, photos, video)
Jonathan Russell and The Head and The Heart were “Down in the Valley” of the Meijer Gardens amphitheater on Thursday.
For 19-year-old John Vouaux of Bay City, driving clear across the state to catch Seattle indie folk-rock/pop’s The Head and The Heart is more than worth the effort because of “the singing, the energy.”
“After you’ve seen ’em, you just have this kind of buzz,” gushed Vouaux, who snagged front-row seats for Thursday’s concert at Grand Rapids’ Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park with his two sisters. “You get this rush when you see ’em.”
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That rush came in voluminous quantities for the youthful, near-sellout crowd of 1,800-plus which heartily embraced the harmonious and peppy six-piece band throughout the 1-hour-and-12-minute show.
It’s the sort of lovable group that attracts devoted fans who recognize its tunes from their opening notes and who sing along to every chorus … which is pretty impressive considering the group formed barely three years ago and has just one, self-titled album to its credit.
With plaintive, tight harmonies supplied by guitarists Jonathan Russell and Josiah Johnson and violinist Charity Rose Thielen, the ultra-energetic group – which comes across as a variation on the Avett Brothers cruising on a bus driven by piano-rock’s Ben Folds – keeps its musical pedal to the metal with percussive keyboard parts supplied by Kenny Hensley, neatly complementing bassist Chris Zasche and drummer Tyler Williams.
Charity Rose Thielen, Chris Zasche and Russell gave an energetic performance.
They also know how to balance the soft and poignant with the bracing and dramatic, building dynamic crescendos on tunes such as “Rivers and Roads” and “Sounds Like Hallelujah” (which also boasted major changes in tempo).
But the highlight may have come midway into the show when the opening act, North Carolina folk collective Lost in the Trees, joined The Head and The Heart for a truly uplifting and joyful rendition of “Lost in My Mind,” turning the band into a full-fledged, folk-rock orchestra.
And as Thielen joked, Meijer Gardens served as a very appropriate venue – and “an amazing landscape to be playing music to” – for a band dubbed Lost in the Trees, which was wrapping up its final night on tour with The Head and The Heart.
If so, it was a rousing way to go out for both bands.
(By the way, for those headed back to that “amazing landscape” for Friday night’s sold-out Gavin DeGraw and Colbie Caillat show, I’m told the co-headlining concert will feature two 75-minute sets, a pretty hefty slice of live music. Consequently, the show starting time has been moved up to 6:30 p.m.)
Click here for a full photo gallery of Thursday’s show, courtesy of MLive.com and photographer Katy Batdorff.
Email: jsinkevics@gmail.com
be on the look out for The Head and The Heart Halfway House Session with Jon Josiah and Charity. . .