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Live Review: Local Natives, Philadelphia, PA, Aug. 6, 2010

Many bands can only dream about the kind of instant success attained by L.A. quintet Local Natives. After a wildly successful stint at SXSW 2009, debut full-length Gorilla Manor was released to critical acclaim, earning the group comparisons to the perfect storm of beloved indie bands including Grizzly Bear, Vampire Weekend and Fleet Foxes. The self-funded album hasn’t even been out a full year, but Local Natives are already playing their material to numerous sold-out venues, including the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia.

The audience sat in the pews and on the floor of the extremely un-air-conditioned church sanctuary in a very civilized manner while openers We Barbarians played their set. However, that all quickly changed between acts, when the crowd began creeping closer to the stage and a certain group of people decided to start the “standing up” trend. Everyone eagerly awaited the arrival of Local Natives in a tight crowd despite the jungle-like heat and greeted the band members with an explosion of cheers when they graced the stage sporting some crazy haircuts (and guitarist/vocalist Taylor Rice’s signature ‘stache, which rivals John Oates’).

Little introduction was needed with such positive energy radiating from the crowd, so the band dove right into “World News” and proved that it wasn’t afraid to fill even the smallest space to the rafters—not even the house of God. The guys played loud and with an unbridled enthusiasm until they were sweating with reckless abandon onstage. The fans, in turn, proved that they had all worn out their copies of Gorilla Manor prior to the show by dancing and singing every word, as so many Local Natives songs are just so sing-along-able.

The band members showed off their musical versatility by periodically switching instruments (including guitarist Ryan Hahn busting out a mandolin for “Airplanes”), all while nailing their signature harmonies and milking the slower parts of songs down to a tense whisper before hitting back with twice as much force. By the time album opener “Wide Eyes” came around, the audience was so riled up that someone actually crowd-surfed, and Rice, who seemed a little stunned by the event, reminded everyone to be careful, but to still have a good time. After a particularly powerful rendition of ballad “Who Knows, Who Cares,” the band took the briefest of breaks before obliging the crowd with an explosive encore with “Sun Hands,” and the fans chanted the chorus as the crowd-surfer rode his wave once again.

When the show was over, the band had played the entirety of Gorilla Manor, much to everyone’s obvious delight. The nice thing about having such a short music catalogue is that everyone was pretty much guaranteed to hear every song they wanted to hear. However, the audience, with their fervor and evident devotion, could have rocked out for at least an hour longer if there had been more material to be heard. Sophomore album, please!

Emily Costantino; photo by Tad Lecuyer

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