I was quite conflicted on the night of May 14th. Playing just a few hours north of Tampa was one of my favorite bands - Dawes. Unfortunately, they were only the opener on tour with Conor Oberst. And even more unfortunately, they were taking the stage at 8pm in downtown Orlando, which is quite the difficult drive to make from Tampa on a weekday night. The silver lining was that there was a respectable show going on that same night in Ybor - featuring a band by the name of Deer Tick.
I actually only know Deer Tick because of a side project lead singer John McCauley is part of. He actually has teamed up for a folk supergroup called Middle Brother with Dawes front man Taylor Goldsmith and Matt Vasquez of Delta Spirit. (participant at GMF...review here)
Deer Tick formed in 2004 and has quite the following. Although not completely sold out, this was the most packed I've seen Crowbar for a show. The opening act was a very talented singer-songwriter, Langhorne Slim. He kept the crowd very entertained on this late night in Ybor. His current single, "The Way We Move," is excellent and is featured on an ESPN ad.
Following Langhorne, the five piece group from Providence, Rhode Island took the stage. They were on tour in support of their recent album, Negativity. Seeing Deer Tick at a small club like Crowbar was quite a treat, especially since this was their second show following a highly praised performance at the Shaky Knees Music Festival in Atlanta, Georgia.
Deer Tick highlighted songs from all five of their studio albums throughout the night. I was most excited for their tunes from their 2007 debut, entitled - War Elephant. If you haven't listened to these guys before, War Elephant is the album to check out. It combines country roots with a pleasant blues-rock sound.
The crowd at Crowbar was fortunate to hear some of the best tunes off War Elephant. Most notably - "Baltimore Blues No. 1," "These Old Shoes," and an acoustic version of "Dirty Dishes." Deer Tick also played War Elephant opener and crowd favorite "Ashamed" as the final song of the night.
Other highlights included "Main Street,"off of 4th studio album, Divine Providence, as well as their most recent single, "The Dream's in the Ditch." I must also give credit to crowd pleaser - "The Bump," which was very entertaining to watch. Check out a live example here.
In total, it was a pleasant night of music at Crowbar. The one critique I have is that Deer Tick played for a bit too long. They came on stage around 11:30pm and were still playing at 1:20am. I'm usually not a guy to complain about a band playing too long, but this one seemed a bit late for a Wednesday night. Regardless though, it was a worthwhile time.
Concert Rating: 2.5 Stars
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