The Wrens

Troubadour - December 3, 2005

Live Review by Adam McKibbin

The Wrens have made the rounds for a long while, albeit sporadically, but even after shaking the rafters of venues from coast to coast and at home and abroad, there is still room for first-time experiences.  After their triumphant show at the Troubadour, the opportunity for one presented itself:  an official Wrens after-party.  There was much to celebrate:  a birthday in the band, a great show, an appreciative audience, the close of another year in a long and sometimes difficult career that, judging by the band’s last release (The Meadowlands, one of the half-decade’s best rock albums), may still have its highest heights ahead.

Perhaps it’s a clever ruse employed every night at every show (“We’ve never done this before, Oklahoma City, but we’re having an after-party!”), but the something-special vibe was earned well before the whole Troubadour was invited over to Beauty Bar.  In its finest moments, it crackled like a farewell show or a reunion show. 

The set was a relatively short one, and the band kept the attention squarely focused on their last album, applying some interesting shifts in instrumentation to buffer the transition to a live setting, but also letting the album’s high and low tempos run their course, from the climactic and clamorous relationship exorcism on “Happy” to the restrained harmonies of “Thirteen Grand.”  The Wrens have a knack for lyrics so spot-on that you want to print them out and make your friends read them as they listen to the songs.  And even though they weren’t always decipherable as the band bounced around stage with amps cranked up high, a fair portion of the sold out crowd had no problem following along, quietly mouthing along or, in a few cases, shouting them at companions.

There is a lot to be said for age, for experience, for survival.  The Meadowlands is a masterpiece of all things sweet and sour that come with age; for an album that so often sounds so triumphant and flat-out feel-good, it continually aches with regret and weariness.  The band’s live show is fabulous and a must-see for anyone who has spent time getting chills and/or rocking out to the record, but the nature of a live show also lessens the impact of those million little collisions.  On stage, joy wins out in a landslide.