Mirah / Ages and Ages at The Western

The Western AZ
March 12, 2014 Jeremiah Craig 0 Comments

Monday night I headed over to The Western to catch Mirah and Ages and Ages. This was my first time at The Western and to be honest it was a rough start. They could’ve had a better first impression but as the night went on Ages and Ages and Mirah put on great performances so I was happy I was able to attend.

I arrived about 30 minutes before the show was scheduled to start but the doors of the bar were still closed and a bunch of people were still waiting outside. The bands were still doing their sound checks which is fine but the doors remained closed for another 45 minutes. So the show started late. When Ages and Ages took the stage, the sound engineer was still having significant problems with the sound but after a few minutes of trying to figure things out the band started anyways.

A couple songs into their set the sound engineer finally was able to get the sound issues ironed out and everyone was able to fully appreciate the great harmonies of Ages and Ages. I started to feel better about the night’s rough start. It was a Monday after all.

Ages and Ages
Ages and Ages

The first time I heard Ages and Ages was on NPR’s All Songs Considered podcast. I thought the song they played was ok but like most bands, I had to see them live to really know what they were all about. Even though there were six members in the band there was surprisingly little instrumentation to each of their songs. Once they started singing you could tell why. The focus of the band was on vocal harmonies and percussive arrangements with the guitars and keyboard to fill the spaces in between. The harmonies were their strongest asset as a band and I was very impressed that all six members of the band held down their part of the harmonies with ease. All six voices together seemed so natural for them. I’ll have to keep my eye out for their new record, Divisionary, which comes out March 25th.

Listen to the single from the new record below.

Once Mirah came on, the sound system was perfect. Everything was at the exact level that it should have been. The band had a simple setup with some unique aspects I didn’t expect. In addition to Mirah and her guitar, there was a guy switching between electric guitar and bass, a woman switching between keys and viola, then the drummer had his kit and a vibraphone. It’s not often I get to see a vibraphone in clubs as small as The Western plus it has to be a hassle to tour with but I’m so glad it was there. It created so pleasant timbres and dissonance to the songs.

Mirah
Mirah and band

Mirah mentioned that it was early to be touring for her new record, which is due out May 13th, and that this was more of a “practice tour”. However, other than playing at lot of new material, there wasn’t much “practice” about it. The songs were tight and well rehearsed. Mirah’s vocals were clean and confident. Every instrumental part was unique and I was impressed the most by the viola.

Mirah’s new song “Oxen Hope”, from the upcoming Changing Light album, has auto tuned harmonies which are difficult to achieve in a live setting. The viola player was setup with an octave/harmonizer pedal which gave the song the same feeling as the studio recording which you can hear below.

There were a few more solos throughout the night from the viola player each one more and more virtuosic, with and without the effects from the harmonizer pedal.

If you get a chance to go see either of these acts sometime this year, I would definitely recommend it.