Rilo Kiley blazes a country-pop path
Rilo Kiley/Nada Surf/The Brunettes
Avalon, Boston, Massachusetts
May 22, 2005
by Marc Hirsh

[all photos taken by Marc Hirsh]

originally published in The Boston Globe, May 25, 2005

Chk-a-chk-a-chk-a-chk-a-chk-a-chk-a-chk-a-chk-a-chk"I've worked with Ben." "No way, I've worked with Fred!"

When Rilo Kiley last came through town this past October, the band was riding the highs of a new album and a sold-out show at the Somerville Theatre. If anything, the band’s stock has grown since then, with the outstanding More Adventurous appearing on countless Best Of 2004 lists, and larger shows like Sunday night’s performance at Avalon seem like the natural reward for a job well done.

Playing in front of a twinkling backdrop that looked like a star field on a giant Lite Brite, Rilo Kiley seemingly divided its set into three distinct segments, with a lighter, countryish set bookended by driving indie pop. For a band simply going through the motions, it could have been disastrous to lump together more subdued songs like the Vaudevillian "Ripchord,” the airy “More Adventurous” and “The Absence Of God,” which recalled ’70s light rockers America, but Rilo Kiley put as much into them as it did rockers like “Portions For Foxes” and “Wires And Waves.”

That focus is partly due to Jenny Lewis, a marvelously expressive singer who variously played guitar, bass, organ and harmonica. But if frontman status comes less easily to bandmate Blake Sennett, who sang “So Long” and “Ripchord” tentatively but charmingly, his qualifications as an indie-rock guitar hero are becoming harder to deny, with blazing solos at the end of “Pull Me In Tighter,” “The Execution Of All Things” and especially the Elvis Costello-endorsed “Does He Love You?,” which built beautifully from a sweet lullaby to surging drama without being jarring. Moments like those piled up one after the other, turning Rilo Kiley’s second round of touring into a victory lap.

Nada Surf opened the show with a set of arty power pop that drew heavily from their last album, 2002’s Let Go, while previewing three promising songs from their upcoming release. Although the first few songs suffered a bit from a mix that made the bass distractingly prominent, the sound problems resolved themselves by the time they reached the lovely “Inside Of Love” and the instruments gelled to provide a rich backdrop to guitarist Matthew Caws’s sweet but not sugary voice.

They were followed by a mercifully brief set by The Brunettes, whose performance was a trainwreck, and they clearly knew it. Taking the stage without a sound check, the New Zealanders’ aim of coming across as a folk collective crossed with 1960s bubblegum was undone by appearing amateurish, unpracticed and unprepared.

I'm only a woman of flesh and bone

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