While it’s not unusual for band members to appear on stage carrying bottles and cans of beer to act as their Dutch courage for the show ahead, Avi Zahner-Isenberg, the mastermind behind California’s Avi Buffalo, walks on stage holding a large mug of tea.
Avi Buffalo are no ordinary band, however, and their lead singer’s choice of onstage refreshment is far from the only unusual thing about tonight’s show.
The venue begins to fill up quickly, with support coming from South London’s Happyness, a three-piece alternative rock group combining bass, drums and blistering lead guitar with bizarre but generally coherent lyrics.
While it’s easy to become focused on the band’s louder moments, often defined by intensely mercurial guitar lines, the highlight of Happyness’s set comes with their quietest song, ‘Baby Jesus (Jelly Boy)’, a soft ballad that showcases not only the band’s excellent lyrics but their superb work with harmonies.
Their closing song, ‘Montreal Rock Band Somewhere’, is another strong number, with a powerful chorus and a slow-burning intensity that comes to a head with the song’s explosive finale, earning a roar of approval from the audience.
By the time the four current members of Avi Buffalo take to stage, the small venue is packed, silence falling as frontman Zahner-Isenberg smiles quietly out at the crowd, drinking his tea and tuning his guitar.
Although Zahner-Isenberg is the brains behind the band, acting as chief songwriter and lead singer, he performs tonight with the addition of drums, bass and keyboards, opening and closing the set with the full band.
A few songs into the performance, however, the other band members leave Zahner-Isenberg alone on stage, where he performs a handful of quieter but no less effective solo numbers, including ‘Summer Cum’, a gem from Avi Buffalo’s 2010 debut album, and ‘Overwhelmed With Pride’, a gorgeous song from their new album, At Best Cuckold.
Zahner-Isenberg says almost nothing for the majority of the night, beginning to speak only a little between songs towards the end of the set, but in some way this only adds to the strangely mysterious air of performance.
Though tonight’s set proves to be built largely around material from their newest release (‘Think It’s Gonna Happen Again’ being a particular highlight), the band are more than happy to draw upon their first album here and there, with the wonderful ‘What’s In It For’ appearing towards the end of the night, much to the delight of the audience.
Soft and cerebral in both lyrics and instrumentation, quietly passionate in their performance and above all strikingly unique, Avi Buffalo’s material is as enjoyable live as it is on their two albums, the band, and Zahner-Isenberg in particular, showing nothing but promise for the future.
Words: Malcolm Higgins
Photos: Kenichi Images
Great photo, really captures the atmosphere
LikeLike