Album preview: Delta Spirit - History From Below

Delta Spirit - Bushwick Blues

Delta Spirit live at Northeastern AfterHours 4.8.10

Over the last 1-2 years, I have probably seen Delta Spirit more than any other single band.  I've seen them as opener and headliner, Upstairs and Downstairs at the Middle East.  I saw them at Bonnaroo, playing a rescheduled set with borrowed gear while torrential rain and tornados (or at least a warning) raged outside the tent.  Each time I've seen them, they have been significantly better than the previous time.  With lots of new material in tow - new album History From Below is scheduled for June 8 release - the band played by far the most unusual show I have seen in some time last Thursday at Northeastern University.

The venue, AfterHours (which is on the Northeastern campus), leaves a bit to be desired - it has the ambiance of a Starbucks.  Literally -- there was a Starbucks at the back of the room.  There was no mistaking this was a college student center, not a rock club.  The crowd was somewhat thin, maybe 100 people total, and much less liquored-up than I expected out of college students on a Thursday night.  However, Delta Spirit took the stage with the unmistakeable presence and energy of a band that knows what they're doing -- mocking "it's been our life's dream to play at Northeastern".  They proceeded to rip through a mix of new tracks in addition to more well-known favorites from their debut, Ode to Sunshine -- People C'mon, Trashcan, Strange Vine, etc.   

Bushwick Blues and 911 (dedicated to Howard Zinn) were both standouts among the consistently-excellent new tracks.  White Table starts slow and builds to a raucous climax of cymbal crashes over a military march, before fading away again.  Ransom Man is a slow-burn murder ballad of-sorts that ends with a cacophonous freakout.  Vivian, a tender, soulful ode to singer Matt Vasquez's late grandmother might be the most beautiful song in the Delta Spirit catalogue. A cover of Tom Waits' San Diego Serenade was the perfect segueway into Trashcan, which rocked as hard as ever despite no appearance from the trashcan lid.  Motivation, an unreleased track described as "the first song we ever wrote", closed out the show on a high point. 

The hour-plus set left me in awe, yet again - Delta Spirit continues to deliver every night.  Check out the full recording from the show below, along with an excellent video of San Diego Serenade > Trashcan (video cuts out towards the end of the song, full memory card...). 

Delta Spirit
4.8.2010
AfterHours at Northeastern University
Boston, MA

Bleeding Bells
Bushwick Blues
Strange Vine
911
White Table
People C'mon
Ransom Man
St. Francis
Vivian
Children
San Diego Serenade* > Trashcan
Motivation

* Tom Waits cover

Video:  San Diego Serenade > Trashcan

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