Fawns & Owls

Went to the Echo last week to see Megafaun...really excellent show. Even better than I was expecting.

I wish I'd brought my camera so that I could have captured the bearded trio all wearing their Lakers jerseys (Worthy, Kareem, and, strangely enough, Eddie Jones) but, alas, I did not and I grabbed this non-event-specific photo from the internet instead. Oh well.

But, anyway, Megafaun killed it. I learned later that the members of Megafaun were former bandmates of one of my absolute faves, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, and while their music now isn't identical, they share a lot of aesthetic preferences. The core of Meganfaun is their beautiful singing and harmonies. They employ the kind of co-frontman thing with their two singers, brothers Brad and Phil, each taking the lead at different times but usually just singing together.

The concert started out with the airy, haunting "Kaufman's Ballad," which they nailed and which clearly established them as a cut above their opener, Breathe Owl Breathe (more on them later). Playing without a bass for the first song, the music floated over the audience, as if cutting through some forest fog. The set after that had a lot of sonic variance, as switches in instruments (guitars to basses, banjos to guitars) let them incorporate elements of rock and psychedelia into some numbers as well as more rootsy bluegrass into others.

Aside from playing a wonderful set, Megafaun also won over the audience with their hysterical, endearing banter. The two leads played effortlessly and naturally off of each other (they do know each other quite well) and they made jokes about Phil's (or was it Brad's?) misuse of sports metaphors and the wafts of dancehall music coming through the floor/walls. They even ended the set like a little league game with the band members leading two lines of audience members to congratulate everyone on a "good game." While so much silliness might usually strike me as distracting, their comments in no way lessened the seriousness of the actual music nor their focus during it. Plus, they were so genuine and funny, and so thankful for a respectful, moderately large crowd, that they were impossible to dislike.

Check out plenty of samples of Megafaun on their official site.

Breathe Owl Breathe also wrote pretty good songs and performed them adequately, but wasn't so successful in separating their "having fun" personas from the "we're serious musicians" personas. The songs often had unusual lyrics (about werewolves and swimming and such) but those mostly worked -- what hurt them, in my opinion, was their inability to just let the music speak for itself. Instead, the donned capes and snorkel gear and childish dance moves and hid behind this "we're zany!" schtick that was unnecessary and made the rest of their act seem disingenuous. As an concert-goer I can't believe that a musician is totally consumed and moved by their music (as they often acted like they were) when ten seconds ago they were joking around and being immature. Maybe the two mindsets exist simultaneously for them, but, for me, you're not in your music when you're constantly taking yourself out of it to semi-mock yourselves. They're a good band musically, they've just made some bad choices in the way they choose to present it.

They could take a lesson or two from Megafaun, but, then again, most bands could. One of my friends bought Megafaun's most recent album and, though I haven't listened to it much yet, so far so good. Maybe I'll follow-up on it later.