Friday, October 25, 2013

Band Review: Dave Hause


This was almost a concert review. Dave Hause (rhymes with pause) played at Music Millennium Saturday, and I really wanted to go. However, that was the day we were taking Mom to the Evergreen Aviation Museum, and even then it could have worked out, but Maria had training so we couldn't leave until she got back. It was a good trip, and good that I was there. Family.
However, this is totally appropriate. I only learned that there even was a Dave Hause recently, and that was all from tweets by members of Alkaline Trio and The Gaslight Anthem, especially about the release of Devour. The first time I heard of Gaslight Anthem was the day of their sold out show, and with Alkaline Trio I think it was actually two weeks before their show, but that didn't help. Apparently this is the group of bands that requires more than one try, and they all know each other. One great show has been seen, so I believe that the others will work out. My next chance for Dave Hause is in February.
I thought about waiting until then to write about him, but the music had gotten under my skin, and I need to do it now. Let it be a sign of my hope for the future.
And that's ironic, because on the first listen there's not a great deal of hope in the lyrics. The first impression is one of disappointment, and mourning for all that has not come through. That's not to say that the music is disappointing - the music sounds great - but it sounds like it was built on the pain of everything wrong with the world.
Well, maybe it is only some of the things wrong with the world. Recurring themes are the legacy we carry from our parents, with the specific phrase "my father's son", and the assurances that we were given of bright futures, that were lies. Both come together on "The Great Depression" which is powerful and poignant.
I should specify that I spent more time listening to Devour; it was not all I listened to, but that's more where my head is. Listening to it took me back to Thomas Frank's book What's The Matter With Kansas. One thing that struck me about it at the time is that he mentioned all of his friends' fathers being big positive thinking men, and also all staunchly conservative.
I didn't understand that until later, but that adherence to the power of positive thinking does two things to you. One is that it allows you to have these great optimistic visions of how great things are going to be, and you can make it happen. "Eat your vitamins and say your prayers." Then, when it doesn't happen, the problem was clearly you. "Welcome to the great depression."
There is a lot of imagery of what has gone wrong, and an inevitability to the wrongness, and yet, it is not completely hopeless. It couldn't be, and have music that good. "We don't stutter when we sing." And you can move on, like in "Bricks", and actually there is a progression to the album where it becomes progressively hopeful.
It literally ends in "Benediction", where despite referring back to the "damned from the start" of "We Could Be Kings", still proclaims that "It's love my friend in the end that can save us tonight...Are you in?"
Initially I had remembered "Damascus" as being closer to the end, but it is actually the first track. "Take the scales off my eyes I'm trying to see." Maybe that is a necessary first step to the journey where you take a hard look at what is, and then you move on to what can be.
So I know this has jumped all over the place, and I have thrown in a lot of extra things, but that is kind of my point. There is a lot to this music. There is a lot to think about after you have listened, and then a lot to listen to again. There is a lot to connect to.
Just as an aside, I also like that the tracks on Resolutions were released in twos, with B-sides, and I like the simple design and the colors of the covers. That appears to have only been in vinyl, but it still means more songs.
There are links for purchasing through the main site, but music is also available through the usual suspects like Amazon, and I bet it's at Music Millennium.

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