Band Camp With Beulah

October 5, 2003

Before taking the stage at the Troubadour on October 4th, Beulah hadn’t played Los Angeles (or anywhere, for that matter) for over a year and half. During that time, they’ve fought through breakup rumors and several actual divorces to record an album, Yoko. With all that bad mojo floating around them, I was happy just to see new material and get a chance to see them perform live.

In studio, Beulah’s specializes in lush, meticulously orchestrated pop music as grand in scope as their absurdly long titles. Beulah recreates this live with six guys, three guitars, two keyboards, trumpet, bass and drums. It’s the kind of material that normally doesn’t translate well, usually burdened by bad PA equipment and poor mixing. This particular night, the sound was spotty for a large portion of the show. The band as a whole was mixed very loudly, trading in dynamic subtlety for sheer volume. This was fine for the more rocking numbers, but it hurt some of the more precise songs, particularly “If We Can Land a Man on the Moon, Surely I Can Win Your Heart.” Lead singer Miles Kurosky’s vocals were also buried in the mix for most of the night. Oddly, I preferred the band when the vocals meshed in with the rest of the band like another instrument. When it was brought up front later in the show, you could see the weakness of Kurosky’s voice. I don’t know if Kurosky was just rusty, but his voice sounded strained when he tried to project and emote too much. By the end, they’d shaken off the cobwebs and were clicking wonderfully, painting their huge sonic landscapes, with particularly epic renditions of “Night Is the Day Turned Inside Out” and “Emma Blowgun’s Last Stand.”

The main function of this tour is to promote Yoko, a darker, moodier record than all their previous material. The band wisely favored the few up-tempo songs on “Yoko” to sustain consistency throughout the set. The dramatic guitars of “A Man Like Me” were one highlight and sexy piano work of “Me and Jesus Don’t Talk Anymore” was another. If you ever get bored one day, listen to “Me and Jesus Don’t Talk Anymore” along side Spoon’s “That’s the Way We Get By.” Alongside the newer material was a little bit of everything from the back catalog, going as far back as the “Maroon Bible” from Handsome Western States (featuring the eternal question “If I was Jack the Ripper would you still kiss me?”). Representing When Heartstrings Break, “Score From Augusta” moved fast and loose while “Matter vs. Space” floated with an easygoing grace. The songs from The Coast is Never Clear sounded best of all, particularly the funky horns of “A Good Man Is Easy To Kill” and the upbeat melodies of “Gene Autry.” I’ll go out on a limb and say that “Silver Lining” is definitely the greatest love letter to punk rock that features a trumpet ever written. Oh, those handclaps!

Beulah’s always had a pretty high audience participation factor, just from sing-along alone. During one particular round of requests, Miles Kurovsky asked a young lady that was yelling “My Side of the City” to join the band on stage and sing the vocals. After much hemming and hawing she finally gathered her courage and jumped on stage. Of course, once the song started, the microphone didn’t work. By the time she and Miles slid to another mike, the song was half over, but they got their licks in anyway. No, she wasn’t a good singer, but damned if it wasn’t fun to watch.

Going strong for almost two hours, Beulah played just about everything that anyone could hope for. Maybe they were out of practice for a little bit, but the show ended with smiles plastered across the faces of fans and band members alike. Beulah?s tour has just started, so they should be in your town trumpeting joy and happiness any minute now.

Posted in From Blown Speakers