Darlingside - WKTV Journal

Darlingside is bassist Dave Senft, guitarist and banjo player Don Mitchell, classical violinist and folk mandolinist Auyon Mukharji, and cellist and guitarist Harris Paseltiner. (supplied/Gaelle Beri)

WKTV Staff
ken@wktv.org

If you haven’t seen and heard the harmonic perfection of the quartet Darlingside — maybe the best alt-folk band you may have never heard of — your missing something special if you can’t snag some tickets to the group’s performance at Seven Steps Up, Monday, April 15, in-between gigs at Toronto and Chicago.

The group, which visited the venue last year and hit the Meijer Gardens summer concert stage a couple years ago, are buzzing through West Michigan in support of their new EP Look Up & Fly Away, as well as their outstanding 2018 album Extralife. (And if you haven’t heard Extralife, you missed one of last year’s most best and original releases.)

Released on Feb. 22, Look Up & Fly Away is comprised of six songs selected from a handful of outtakes from Extralife and, according to supplied material, has the band “exploring the different stages of life and death and continuing to spotlight the group’s poetic and timeless ability to capture complex, ecumenical topics.

“Stretching the boundaries of traditional folk, chamber pop, baroque, progressive and indie rock, Darlingside melds various styles together to create something not easily categorized and very much their own.”

Like Extralife, the EP will undoubtedly feature Darlingside’s signature hypnotic harmonies — often using a single mic for the four voices, sparse instrumentation, and almost mystic songwriting — think space music that does not put you to sleep.

Darlingside, especially on Extralife, was said to be reminiscent of The Beach Boys, Fleet Foxes and Simon & Garfunkel. Rolling Stone Country said the album is, “…both fresh and familiar, like some throwback piece of orchestral folk-pop recently removed from the vault.”

The Extralife single “Hold Your Head Up High” was recently nominated for the 2019 “International Song of the Year” UK Americana Award.

Seven Steps Up, by the way, is a great small concert venue in Spring Lake, at 116 S. Jackson Street. While the concert is officially listed as a sold-out, it does not hurt to check, call 616-930-4755 or visit sevenstepsup.com . And there are plenty of great acts coming to the venue in the near future.

Now familiar to the Meijer Gardens summer concert series after their second visit in three years, Lake Street Dive – from left, Michael Olson, Rachel Price, Bridget Kearney and Michael Calabrese – is a band of eclectic sounds and songs. (Supplied photo)

30-second Review

Lake Street Dive, with Darlingside opening, Aug. 24 at Meijer Gardens amphitheater.

Lake Street Dive is a band of a multitude of musical styles and a sound much bigger than its lean four-member lineup would suggest – and the Brooklyn-based band’s choice of covers included as part of its nearly two-hour, 21-song set Wednesday was clear evidence of both. From a fun-filled, mostly loyal-to-the-original version of the Kinks “Lola”, to Prince’s “When You Were Mine” – a soulful version with a great standup base solo intro by Bridget Kearney, to an encore closing blast of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, Lake Street Dive and most especially lead singer Rachel Price showed off their versatility. Among the highlights of the band’s original songs were a bluesy/gospel sounding “Godawful Things” as their opening number, “Mistakes” with Michael Olson stepping away from his guitar to his trumpet, and the soulful “Rental Love” – the first two off the band’s great 2016 release Side Pony and the last off 2014’s Bad Self Portraits.

May I have more, please?

Darlingside put on a surprising and pleasing opening set focused on harmonies, a single vocal mic and an alt folk sound reminiscent of the Avett Brothers or Mumford and Sons. (Suppled photo)

Another great example of the multitude of musical styles the audience at Meijer Gardens was witness to was a surprising, might I say stunning, opening eight-song, 45-minute opening set by Massachusetts-based quartet Darlingside.

Described by NPR as bringing a “baroque folk-pop” sound – and I can do no better for definition – Darlingside’s sound featured single microphone vocal harmonies, sparse percussion sound sans a drummer, but acoustically superb use of strings other than guitar and banjo. On their latest recording, 2015’s Birds Say, bassist Dave Senft, guitarist and banjo player Don Mitchell, classical violinist and folk mandolinist Auyon Mukharji, and cellist and guitarist Harris Paseltiner have created a sound that reminds one of the Avett Brothers or Mumford and Sons, but really sounds like nothing I’ve heard before.

The band had me at its a cappella opening “The God of Loss” from Birds Say and cemented my attraction with its set-ending “Blow the House Down” from 2012’s Pilot Machines, the band’s debut recording.

After first running across the band when they were still students at Williams College in western Massachusetts in 2012, I can’t wait to fill in the blanks in my CD cabinet and keep a watch on their continued and justified exposure.

Looking Ahead

What’s up next with the Fifth Third Bank Summer Concerts at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park: the sold-out Seal on Aug. 31, with tickets available only for the rescheduled Tears for Fears on Sept. 26.

Schedule and more info:

meijergardens.org/calendar/summer-concerts-at-meijer-gardens