Band of Horses in Lausanne

On Friday night I joined friends Chris and Sue and their friends Alec and Danielle in Lausanne to check out Band of Horses at Le Romandie (the cool little hole-in-the-wall venue where I saw that National last fall). For the uninitiated, BoH make music ripe with electric guitar soundscapes, southern-fried sensibility and vocals that soar above the din. To be honest, I was on the fence about the group — the Southern rock thing isn’t overpowering but it’s not my genre of choice, and on record I find a lot of the songs blend together (which really makes no sense since I really like the in-many-ways-similar group Rogue Wave).

The live show, then, was make-or-break for me, and I’m pleased to say I was won over. The songs became more distinctive and more energetic than in studio and the musicianship was quite impressive. I’m a Collective Soul fan, so I can appreciate a 3-guitar sonic assault (which is certainly the only thing those two bands have in common).

There were two opening acts (including a solo set by BoH guitarist Tyler Ramsey) which weren’t bad, but definitely fell into the “beard rock” subgenre. It’s right up there with wolf shirts, which incidentally came up in the evening’s conversation. (Aaaaannnnd, I’ve lost all of my parents’ friends if they even made it this far).

Unfortunately we had to book it at around 12:30 to catch the last train back to Geneva, missing the encore. We did, however, get to hear most of the songs we wanted to including “The First Song,” “Great Salt Lake,” “Is There A Ghost,” and their ‘biggest’ song, “The Funeral” which was fantastic in person.

A few pics (featuring a few too many beards):