Steve Poltz is just a fun dude to hang out with. I showed up late to his CityFolk set, but I was there just in time to hear him explain how an unfortunate childhood misunderstanding about the word wind (think about how wind as in air currents looks like wind as in winding a watch) resulted in a bloody collision with a truck.
“That’s why I started writing songs!” he said. “Because a truck antennae attached itself to my retainer!”
Poltz talks almost as much as he actually plays music. This could get annoying, but for the time I was pretty content to listen to him describe baseball games and quote his favorite parts of The Big Lebowski. I don’t know how much of the goofy impromptu shtick he has going on is actually carefully planned, but it certainly worked on the small but devoted crowd he attracted.
Everyone was content to sing along with his rambling folk songs, like the good-hearted “I Want all My Friends to be Happy.” They were also enthused to shout “fuck off” when directed during one of his songs. I joined in. I’m not much of an audience participator, but there’s something infectious about being in a room full of people joyously shouting profanity.
After Poltz, I went outside to find out what Win Butler’s younger brother is doing with his life. Will Butler appeared onstage with very little fanfare. For a second I actually thought he and his band were the sound crew.
Then they started playing and I figured it out pretty fast. It’s difficult when listening to Policy and when seeing Butler play live to hear his music on its own merits. However, as the set went on I found myself thinking less and less about Arcade Fire. Sure it’s impossible to not make comparisons and I could certainly hear it in the more harmony-driven pop ballads, but Will Butler doesn’t seem to have any unified sound. His live show is energetic and all over the place, filled with garage rock alongside low-key piano ballads and psychedelic folk.
“If you come and take my hand I will buy you a pony,” he sings during “What I Want.” “We can cook it for supper/I know this great recipe for pony macaroni.” Later in the same song, he suggests that he and the object of his affection adopt a jar of squids.
Butler’s whole performance seemed to have that winking tongue-in-cheek attitude. Highlights included the dance pop number “Anna,” the slowly building “Madonna Can’t Save me Now,” and the piano ballad “Sing to Me,” which transitioned from lovely and understated to chaotic and weird. Butler has a great band behind him: Julie Shore and Sarah Dobbs on keyboards and Miles Arntzen on drums. They provided extra dimension with their back-up vocals, often to really haunting effect. The whole thing made me hope that Will Butler keeps on freewheeling, making his own music apart from the giant behemoth that is Arcade Fire.
