I loved Hallelujah the Hills' 2019 album I'm You. It was my #6 album of the year, and looking back, I listen to it a lot more frequently than the albums that I ranked higher. Friday was the fifth anniversary of the release of that album, and to celebrate, they decided to play the album from start to finish at Deep Cuts. Obviously, I could not miss this one.
sidebody opened the show, and I was excited to see them. Their album full time job was released earlier this year, and it's great. One of the obvious comparisons for their art rock style is Talking Heads. Seeing as the four members of sidebody took the stage wearing oversized grey suit jackets, it's a hard comparison not to make. Like Talking Heads, sidebody make New Wave inspired art rock that is fun and makes you want to dance. All four members take turns with vocals and swapped instruments liberally. Songs like "he's dead" and "quantumly entangled" were a complete blast live, and while they had some fans that showed up for them, they won over the rest of the crowd before the end of the set. Hallelujah the Hills have a bunch of songs that turn into earworms for me, but I spent the entire weekend with "Yeah, I think we're quantumly entangled / Just a little tingle" running on an endless loop in my head.
Brooklyn's Upper Wilds played second. They're the band I was least familiar with, but I was quickly won over by them. Their blend of hard rock was kind of like prog rock mixed with punk, which shouldn't work at all, but Upper Wilds pull it off. It's another version of art rock, but a surprisingly heavy version. The band has released three albums in a row named after planets, with Venus consisting of ten tracks all named "Love Song #1," "Love Song #2," and so on. If that sounds intriguing to you, you're probably going to love Upper Wilds. I certainly was won over by them.
Full album shows can be strange. It eliminates pretty much all surprise since you know what you're getting and when it's going to come up. But I'm You is an album full of what the kids call bangers, so it was a perfect night of music. Seriously, "Folk Music is Insane," "Running Hot with Fate," "Born to Blow It," "Transparent Chart of the Heavens," "People Keep Dying (And No One Can Stop It)," and "It Still Floors Me" are six of my favorite songs to see played live, and I got to see all of them played in a row Friday night. (Also, is there a better six song run on any album?) Their performance was also a prime example of healing through music and how important experiencing joy can be. It seems pretty safe to assume most people in the audience were of a certain political leaning, and I think we all needed Friday night. (The line "Punk rock made me hate the government" from the song "I'm You" got a particularly great reaction.)
After playing I'm You, Hallelujah the Hills came back for an encore that consisted of newer favorites like "Superglued to You" and "Here Goes Nothing" along with classics like "Hallelujah the Hills." When I first heard "Here Goes Nothing," I commented that the line "Fuck, I'm starting over again" was going to be a particularly fun one to yell out with a room full of people. Obviously, I was correct.
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