By Beverly Bryan
Raleigh, North Carolina's Annuals began their set
amid cheers on a darkened stage. A drum
solo led into an extended pop-rock jam so sparkly and perfect it sounded auto
tuned. But as the noodling reached the Rush threshold, boyish frontman Adam
Baker let out a series of hoarse screams. Adding further intrigue, he played an
acoustic guitar for most of the set.
I’m usually the last person to admit an act defies
categorization, but this one was a toughie. On the next song the six-piece band stepped lightly into a grandiose
take on alt-country, generating a lilting wall of sound. With Baker’s piercing
vocals it’s tempting to brush Annuals off as a poppy mall-emo band that
happens to feature prodigiously good musicians, but as they piled on the genres and instruments (three guitars, two drum sets, bass and
keyboard) that became more difficult. They swooped between full-on prog-outs
and funky bass-driven interludes. Sometimes the panoply of rhythms would
introduce a Brazilian feel into a song with country roots. But they anchored
everything with a powerful and overriding pop sensibility. The girls up front
knew the words and sang along.
It was the last night of the tour and the two opening bands,
who had accompanied Annuals throughout, both expressed end-of-summer-camp
sadness that it was ending. Tempe, Arizona’s What Laura Says took many of the
most ambitious rock moments of the 1970s, including T-Rex, and upcycled them
into a sleek piece of work fit for a spread in ReadyMade magazine. It was the
precise four part harmonies that did it.
Up next, Jessica Lea Mayfield played with a full band that
included her brother on upright and sometimes electric bass. She led them
through expanses of alt-country in the vein of Neko Case but with strangely emo bombast. And, like the
other two bands on the bill, they had the kind of polish
Holly’s “Words of Love” was a delight, even if it did have its origins in a
Starbucks compilation.
At the end of the last song the members of both bands crept
onstage with everything from an electric mandolin to hockey sticks (for air
guitar) and closed out the tour in chaotic style.
Toward the end of the night Baker thanked the crowd for
missing Modest Mouse and Morrissey to see his band. No one in the audience
seemed to think it was much of a sacrifice — even after two lengthy encores.
