Band of Horses Live in Bloomington, Indiana

Band of Horses played in Bloomington, Indiana this past Thursday. During the set, lead singer Ben Bridwell often broke into an action unit 1 smile which is formed involuntarily. This spontaneous and unrehearsed facial expression was not only found on Bridwell but everyone present as we experienced one of the first shows on the first major tour backing Band of Horses magnificent debut album Everything All The Time.

Besides the usual album cuts, they laced the set with several new songs including “Detlef Schrempf” which solicited a chuckle from the crowd as he was both a former Seattle Supersonics player (the band is from Seattle), an Indiana Pacer and the only NBA player ever to sport a pompadour flat-top.

The Bloomington crowd was a little too chatty during some of the slower songs but Bridwell managed to disarm any hostility by saying, “Its ok. That way they won’t hear us screw up.”

This type of honesty was well-received because they had already won the audience over with explosive versions of their album cuts including, “The First Song.” On this song, Bridwell managed to sing and play the electric slide guitar with the type of flare that country artists only manage in their dreams. His voice was also crystal clear on “The Great Salt Lake” and “The Funeral.”

For the encore they played a different version of “Wicked Gil” as they had run out of songs from their album. This might seem like a hackneyed approach to an encore, but I found it endearing, like a friend with a guitar in a dorm room wanting to keep sharing the experience despite not knowing any more songs. They followed “Wicked Gil” with songs so new they required lyric sheets.

After the show I wondered to my friend, “How can I describe not just the songs, but the feeling of watching a new band perform their songs for the first time live.”

I came up with this: you know that feeling you get when you first learned to ride a bike or drive a car? That’s the feeling that I got watching Band of Horses on Thursday at the Bluebird in Bloomington, Indiana. It was an enthusiastic and exhilarating first taste of freedom.