Photos by Ty Hyten
The Scene: Saturday night’s Half Moon Run show came only three short months since their last visit, but they had somehow succeeded in jumping from the tiny Larimer Lounge to the Ogden Theatre. They didn’t sell-out the venue, but the room was comfortably packed with twenty and thirty-somethings more interested in listening than drunken conversation, with a few exceptions that the crowd smothered out with glares and all-too-polite requests.
Half Moon Run: In the past three months, the Indie-Rock/Pop band has seen both sides of life on the road. From tiny venues like Larimer Lounge in the States, to four consecutive sold-out nights at the 2,400 capacity Métropolis in their home town of Montreal. In a conversation with drummer Dylan Phillips before the show, he shared that the band has seen much more traction in Canada and Europe, given the difficulty of spanning the entire US on tour. At the conclusion of their US tour, the band will be skipping their previously scheduled appearance at Hangout Festival (for reasons Dylan didn’t share). This surprisingly counts them out of all of the major US summer festivals, which comes as a bit of a surprise after taking in Saturday’s fantastic show as well as seeing the large festivals they will be playing in Europe this summer.
While they might pull larger crowds abroad, Phillips shared that the band was especially excited about Denver which has been one of the most receptive stops for them stateside. After the crowd loosened up a bit, that was certainly true of Saturday’s show.
All four members sang in brilliant harmonies that were so well matched it sounded familial – which is a hell of a thing for a band that formed in part through Craigslist. This was undeniable and strikingly clear on sparse songs like “Unofferable” and equally strong on the other end of songs like “Call Me In The Afternoon.” There were large tastes of the influences of Radiohead and Muse throughout the night, whether it be the arpeggiating keys, drawn out lead vocal and electronically aided drums on “It Works Itself Out,” or the synthy bass lines and chaotic lead vocal on the chorus of “Consider Yourself.” Each member had a keyboard and three of the four had drums at their disposal. A full drum kit for each drummer and one tom drum for Devon Portielje to beat on. The drummers complimented each other, at times playing somewhat in unison, but at their best, juxtaposing rapid rim and snare hits with a more straight forward beat, creating interesting injections of unfamiliar time signatures, notably on “Turn Your Love.”
The band slowly built songs up into a crescendo of energy and tempo without relying on big, empty choruses to get the job done. Some shining examples were “She Wants to Know” and “Everybody Wants.” Portielje delivered brief tastes of his guitar skills, but unfortunately they never lasted quite long enough to fully satisfy my selfish yearning for more. These were a few short glimpses of what could have taken the show beyond what it already was.
On the other end of the spectrum were downtempo treasures like the smooth “Need It” and the lackadaisical “Warmest Regards” at the top of the set. One song missing from the night was Phillips’ minute-long piano interlude, “Throes,” which oddly became their most popular song on Spotify recently due to its inclusion on the Peaceful Piano playlist.
The night concluded with the reappearance of the band and the crowd favorites “Trust” and the much anticipated “Full Circle.” The band left the stage again, and oddly, the house lights remained off and purple light bathed the stage. I was fully expecting a Prince cover, especially given the four pages of lyrics taped at Portielje’s feet, but ultimately a crew member walked out and gestured that the show was over. Nothing to complain about though, the band showed Denver a tight, infectious show on the first night of their US tour.
Energy: A
Musicianship: A+
Sound: A
Stage Presence: B
Set/Light Show: B+
Overall: A-
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