By K.D. Norris
Anybody who saw the Massachusetts-based alt-folk quartet Darlingside at Meijer Gardens’ summer concert series in 2016 (which I did), knows their return to Western Michigan later this month is maybe the spring’s first must-see concert.
Those who didn’t catch them before would be wise to check them out and get in on the emerging musical buzz.
At Meijer Gardens, Darlingside was the opening act, but their eight-song, 45-minute set had everybody rushing back from the concession/libation stations to witness an a cappella opening of “The God of Loss” from the band’s 2015 release Birds Say and the quartet had everybody’s attention well before their set-ending statement “Blow the House Down”, from 2012’s Pilot Machines, the band’s debut recording.
There is bound to be more surprises Wednesday, April 18, when the band plays at Seven Steps Up, in Spring Lake, in support of their latest release: “Extralife”.
Darlingside’s sound, that night at Meijer Gardens, featured single microphone vocal harmonies, sparse percussion sounds sans a drummer, but acoustically superb use of string instruments including but not limited to guitar and banjo. Bassist Dave Senft, guitarist and banjo player Don Mitchell, classical violinist and folk mandolinist Auyon Mukharji, and cellist and guitarist Harris Paseltiner created a sound that reminds one (at least me) of the Avett Brothers or Mumford and Sons, but really sounds like nothing you’ve heard before.
According to supplied information, “Extralife” finds Darlingside “looking to the future, mourning the loss of our world with a post-apocalyptic view to address topics ranging from societal issues, politics, environmental concerns and religious tensions. While the subject matter may seem bleak, ‘Extralife’ is not without an underlying sense of hope and optimism.”
Like I said, surprises are to be expected. Just ask the band about its new release:
“We put our four heads together and created this collective consciousness about bits and pieces from our past and how we saw the world based upon reminiscences,” Paseltiner said in supplied material.
Mukharji goes on to describe the “Extralife” concept as “… a life beyond where we are now, whether that’s a brand new thing, a rebirth, or just a new version of ourselves as we move forward. … That future being a completely unknown quantity and the present being a new and bizarre place to be living in.”
After a stop in Ann Arbor on Tuesday, April 17, Darlingside will be at Seven Steps Up for a 7:30 p.m. concert (with Henry Jamison opening). Reserved standard seats are $28, and reserved table seats are $38.
Seven Steps Up is located in downtown Spring Lake, in a renovated Masonic Temple circa 1919, at 116 S. Jackson Street. For more information on the venue visit sevenstepsup.com . For more information on the band visit darlingside.com .
