CONCERT REVIEW: The Myriad

So, this is what the youth group event of the year (for Albuquerque, New Mexico, at least) looks like: crammed parking lot, sweating teenagers waiting in an endless line with hopes of getting in the door of a megachurch to see Wavorly and The Myriad and get a little talk about purity. Wavorly opened the event. They’re the kind of band that I find hard to dislike - they’re a group of skilled musicians (if not songwriters) and it shows. From the five or six songs they played (which were marred by technical difficulties) I got the impression that their best songs are pretty good while the rest sink under the weight of being exactly like their good songs except, well, not as good.

The band tried too hard to get a response from the crowd that just wasn’t deserved. Whatever their head-banging keyboardist actually played pales in comparison to the memory of him urging the crowd to clap along every thirty seconds or so. Maybe it’s just me but shouldn’t bands have to earn the responses they get from the crowd instead of asking for them? Wavorly tried to be a good rock band - they sounded somewhat cool, they looked somewhat cool, they jumped around a little - but I sat and analyzed their music (should that ever happen at a rock concert?) instead of being moved by it. I wasn’t bored, but I wasn’t excited either, and I didn’t get that wide grin that comes across my face when I listen to great music.

By design, the performance felt more like an attempt to get the crowd warmed up for the inevitable alter call and less like a rock act. The Myriad had the opposite role - they were the light at the end of the tunnel designed to keep people from walking away and going home. Their performance didn’t feel tied to what had come before although some of the songs inadvertently spoke to it.

The Myriad walks the line between making compelling music and music that’s too derivative to bother with. That’s an analysis that holds little weight for a live show though. Live, The Myriad has enough good music (if not quite enough stage presence) to put on an amazing show. There’s not really many stage theatrics - nothing beyond the occasional two-part rhythm part really - but the music (which accurately replicates their albums) speaks for itself. Sitting two-hundred feet away I was still felt energized by the performance - I still felt the joy of the (underpowered) amps delivering sonic waves through the room. The light show was unimpressive, the sound equipment was mediocre, but it was still fun. The performance always had a feeling of topping itself (if only a little) with every new song that kept me on the edge of my seat (if only I could see the band in a standing room only venue . . .) throughout the performance.

I’ve had With Arrows, With Poise on repeat for the last couple of days and I can’t help but like the band. They make catchy music with meaning and put on a good live show. They sing lines like “You waste time like a grandfather clock”, and “It seems that God was not impressed / With clever, crooked fools / And if the sun comes up tomorrow / We’ll be fine”, and maneuver through tricky tempo changes without ever letting us tire of the formula. They’ll probably never be more than an above average rock band but I’ll still be listening - with a wide grin across my face.

• www.themyriad.net
• www.myspace.com/themyriad

Does it Resonate with you?

Name (required)

Email (will not be published) (required)

URL