Last Friday Los Angeles waged The War On Drugs.  TWOD first appeared on KCRW in the morning and let fly with a scintillating and superbly captured set of songs (you can listen to the whole set HERE).  Watch the band’s performances of An Ocean In Between The Waves and Disappearing on KCRW below.

Later that night the band played the hallowed, sold-out Troubadour.  The band came out blazing with their wall-of-jangle hypno-taze and took their songs to a higher plane beyond their superb Lost In The Dream studio representations, but especially on Under Pressure, An Ocean In Between The Waves and Eyes to the Wind.  Adam Granduciel was gracious and giving the entire night, whipping up the crowd repeatedly with his Les Paul and Firebird fingerings, feelings and ferocity, the likes of which haven’t been seen or heard outside of the legendary Neil Young and his Old Black throttlings.  While his songwriting and locomotive delivery shine, Granduciel has also grown into a gifted vocalist, with his Dylan-esque mien and variable phrasings.  Granduciel is backed by a crew of gifted musicians (and especially drummer Charlie Hall), who fantastically fill the sound-train’s seats and set it to chugging full steam down the tracks.

One minor complaint about the set would be that with up to seven members and instruments on stage fighting for ear-space, the band members seemed at times to unconsciously be fighting for decibels and to be heard (we could have done with less dominant bass in the mix, as good as it was, and more sound separation to show off all the players–ferheavensake if you’re going to bring a horn player, let’s hear what you’re paying for).  It was not surprising, then, that some of the best moments of the evening for us were when the band down-throttled for the balladry and comparatively-spare sounds and dynamics heard live on Disappearing and Suffering.   The band also seemed to lose the thread towards the end of their main set which belied the wearying effects of incessant touring.  But they came back strong to close out with a powerful reading of Lennon’s Mind Games and Arms Like Boulders before closing with a rousing encore.

The War On Drugs provided some of the most mesmerizing and propulsive ensemble sounds that we have heard in quite some time on Friday at the Troubadour.  If you get a chance to see them, don’t ya miss it (and especially you guitar- and rig-geeks).

The full Troubadour setlist is at bottom.  Photo at top by Debi Del Grande via L.A. Record.

Setlist:

Under the Pressure
Baby Missiles
I Was There
An Ocean In Between The Waves
Disappearing
Eyes to the Wind
Red Eyes
Suffering
Brothers
I Hear You Calling
(Bill Fay cover)
Burning
Lost In The Dream
Come to the City
In Reverse
Mind Games
(John Lennon cover)
Arms Like Boulders

Encore:
Black Water Falls
Comin’ Through