Scene and Heard: Augustines
Photo Credit: Mor Weizman
Photo Credit: Mor Weizman
Photo Credit: Mor Weizman
Photo Credit: Mor Weizman
Photo Credit: Mor Weizman
Photo Credit: Mor Weizman
Photo Credit: Mor Weizman
Photo Credit: Mor Weizman
Photo Credit: Mor Weizman
Photo Credit: Mor Weizman
“In gospel music, Cajun music, and flamenco music, there’s a fine line; you’re either crying or you’re celebrating. We like to ride that line,” said Augustines’ lead singer and guitarist Billy McCarthy to KCRW’s Jason Bentley. The statement, made during a late January interview in Los Angeles before the indie rock band released its sophomore album Augustines (Votiv), proved to be true during its spirited performance at the Troubadour in West Hollywood on Tuesday, February 11. From the moment they took the stage, the band plunged “Headlong Into the Abyss” both literally and figuratively.
The Seattle-based band—made up of McCarthy, Eric Sanderson on vocals, bass, and keyboards, and drummer Rob Allen—released its first album, Rise Ye Sunken Ships under the name We Are Augustines due to a trademark dispute that has since been resolved. McCarthy and Sanderson, both former members of the Brooklyn-based band Pela, formed Augustines in 2010. The band wrote the new record over five weeks spent in a converted church in Geneseo in upstate New York in late 2012, and its tracks contain a new optimism reflected in the smiles on the musicians’ faces as they took the stage at the storied Santa Monica boulevard venue.
“We’ve been on tour. Good lord it’s been 13 degrees in New York and we’ve had none of that,” said McCarthy who was born in Santa Cruz but spent much of the past decade on the East Coast. “This is our no snow dance,” he said, before introducing a song from the new record. After a half-hearted preface to “Kid You’re On Your Own,” and a self-deprecating laugh, McCarthy added, “You don’t know how it feels up here. Everything you say sounds like a cliché.” The song includes the subtle warning, “You’re in the backseat hanging on by a thread. The sun goes down but don’t come up again,” and a plaintive lament that “everyone you’ve loved slipped through your hands like sand.” But there’s an optimism to the tune, an anthemic quality that brightens up the grim lyrics.
“You’re easy on the eyes, L.A.,” said McCarthy as he looked out at the audience assembled for the evening. The band played San Francisco’s The Independent the previous night, and McCarthy said they got about two hours of sleep between gigs. “I’m down to my last pair of socks,” he said, before introducing “Walkabout” with a simple statement, “This song’s about California, believe it or not.”
By Elizabeth Varnell
Setlist:
“Headlong Into the Abyss”
“Chapel Song”
“Cruel City”
“Augustine”
“Juarez”
“Ballad of a Patient Man”
“Philadelphia (The City of Brotherly Love)”
“Kid You’re On Your Own”
“Strange Days”
“Walkabout”
“Now You Are Free”
“Book of James”
“Hold On To Anything”
“New Drink for the Old Drunk”
Pictured: Billy McCarthy of Augustines at the Troubadour in West Hollywood.
Photo by Mor Weizman
