I ventured out to see The Smile at The Eastern Sunday night as they brought their tour through town in support of their their debut album. The show sold out quickly when tickets went on sale, but a quick check showed that some additional tickets had been released the day of the show. The venue certainly looked sold out (or damn near close) to my eyes though.
The Venue
This was my first time to the one of the newest live music spaces in the city. This wasn’t for lack of trying, I had purchased tickets to a couple of other shows there that were subsequently postponed and then moved to another venue. I had a mostly positive first impression of the space: the acoustics were fantastic, there were lots of places to acquire something to drink, and, for the most part, sight lines were fantastic.
I say for the most part for a couple of reasons. First, I found myself parked with a structural support pillar bisecting the stage in my vision. That one is on me. Knowing that this was sold out show (or almost), I should have arrived earlier or I should have gone with a show buddy to retain my original spot dead center. Again, my bad. The second minor mark is that the flat spaces between the floor and the upper stadium style seats (that is graduated ledges without proper seats) were a bit wide, which led to crowds who probably had worse sight lines than I did (depending on who they were standing behind). I’m not sure what the venue could do otherwise and still be accessible though.
All told, the quality of the sound there more than made up for those minor quibbles. I mean, this may be the best sounding venue in Atlanta other than the symphony hall in the Atlanta Arts Center. The Easter was purpose built for this, and it showed. It even had acoustic baffling all around the walls and ceiling.
Robert Stillman
Now on to the show itself. Robert Stillman, a saxophone player form Maine, took the stage first to, in his words, “set the mood.” The best way to describe his music is multi-layered and looped free jazz fusion. I couldn’t really detect particular songs per se, but I really liked his first sequence. It built upon the them he established with his sax, looping in previous runs and building on them.
His second sequence, not so much. I get dissonance is a part of the Radiohead DNA, but it was just a little too dissonant for me (and by all appearances the rest of the crowd too). Or, as my friend put it: “It’s basically what the DJ would play at 2 am on Album 88 if he had just gotten dumped and wanted to take it out on everyone.”
The Smile
The Smile, however, provided a much better return, as one would expect. It’s here that I have to revise my earlier thoughts on them though, having seen them go through their paces. Entirely different aspects of their music resonated with me at the show. Yes, they still separated themselves nicely from Radiohead, light or heavy, while they go down to business. My impression of them based on the show though is of a band that is totally free of any shackles whatsoever. The don’t give a damn what is expected. It made the music freer and more exciting, as I had no idea which direction they’d turn next. From the straight up rocker, “You Will Never Work in Television Again,” to something that could only be described as an old school torch song (it was one of the new songs, so I can’t remember which one it was—I don’t bring a note book to shows after all). You can find the full set list here, if you are interesting in that sort of thing.
The range of musical styles they displayed was truly impressive. Robert Stillman lent his saxophone to four songs. His contribution was lost on the album songs, but was much more pronounced on the new songs. I get the sense him, or someone like him, will feature more prominently going forward. At one point, Thom Yorke said, “this is a new song… that’s what new bands do, play new songs.” All told, The Smile played five songs that had been put together since the album was released, including the debut of “Teleharmonic” during the encore. So, it looks like The Smile may not be a one shot thing for them after all!
A couple of final observations. First, all three members of The Smile (Thom Yorke, fellow Radiohead member Johnny Greenword, and Tom Skinner from Sons of Kemet) all share the foreground on stage. It actually let the audience see them at work much better. Yorke stayed stage right for most of the show (only moving centrally to play piano on “The Smoke”). Watching the rhythm section at work was pure joy. Johnny Greenwood may be one of the most innovative bassists working today. And Tom Skinner on drum, brought an entirely different vibe too. You could tell he is more of jazz drummer. He didn’t pound the drums frantically. It looked like he was playing them softly, but still getting the thump and boom required.
At the end of the day, I am super happy I made it to this show. I was never the rabid Radiohead fan. I only came around to them late with In Rainbows, and truth be told, A Light for Attracting Attention is as good or better than most Radiohead albums. Don’t get me wrong, OK Computer is still a masterpiece. I like The Smile perhaps more because of it’s similarities to Radiohead, but more so because of its differences.