Wednesday, October 14, 2015

David Wax Museum Week: A ramble regarding their best song, "Unfruitful"

David Wax Museum - Unfruitful from Kitchen Sessions on Vimeo.


I'm pretty sure Ken got me into David Wax Museum fairly early on as a local band. Their song "I Have Wasted My Life" really got me hooked, and when Everything is Saved came out, all the better. It was the full, complete album I had been waiting for from the band, and happened to have a pretty killer song on it as well in "Unfruitful." I don't know if it was the imagery or what that got me hooked on the song, but when I finally got to see the band perform it at the Arlington Street Church in December 2011, well...

I mean, by now you've listened to the video above. The song is a fun, crazy piece of work in someone's kitchen in the Boston area. Now translate it to a giant room. Or a church. And the band is entering the audience, and everyone knows the words, and there's the sing-a-long part at the end.

Just brilliance.

The song is perfect from start to finish, really. The way it builds is great, with the multiple distinct parts. The bass work is subtle but indispensable, and the controlled chaos at the end is as fun on record as it is in person. There are countless videos of this song being performed without amplifiction in the middle of crowds, throughout the venue, wherever. It's great.

I feel like a crazy person ranting about it, but it's just one of those songs that drives up that feeling of a sort of happy madness. When I want people to love David Wax Museum, I show them this song. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. But for me, it's absolutely the song that transformed them from a band I liked to a band I love.

No comments:

Post a Comment