Okkervil River, Islington Assembly Hall - music review

The Texas band got the crowd moving with an evening of tub-thumping folk-rock
INDIO, CA - APRIL 19: Musician Will Robison Sheff of Okkervil River performs during day three of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2009 held at the Empire Polo Club on April 19, 2009 in Indio, California.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
29 November 2013

Named after a short story by Russian author Tatyana Tolstaya, Okkervil River were perhaps never destined for the mainstream.

Seven albums into their career, the Texas band remain largely a cult concern — had you brought a cat with you to the back of the Islington Assembly Hall, there’d have been ample room to swing it.

Still, those in attendance were greeted to an evening of tub-thumping folk-rock from a band who make sense live.

At the heart of the music was frontman Will Sheff, whose beanpole physique and oversized glasses cast him as Americana’s own Jarvis Cocker. Like Cocker, Sheff has a way with an arresting lyric. John Allyn Smith Sails, a first-person rumination on the suicide of American poet John Berryman, began with the lines: “By the second verse, dear friends, my head will burst, my life will end.”

Not that an evening with Okkervil River is a depressing experience. The funky Stay Young, from latest album Silver Gymnasium, was one of many tracks to get the crowd moving.

At their worst, as on the grisly riffing of The Valley, the band veered towards pub-rock. But during their more thoughtful moments, Okkervil River sounded like one of music’s better kept secrets.

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