Gig: Pedro The Lion @ The Garage, London
Pedro The Lion by Jonathan Dadds
It’s been quite a while since Pedro The Lion came to London, nineteen years as a band and eleven years since David Bazan played a solo set – I didn’t get to see Pedro The Lion last time around but Bazan’s solo show at The Lexington was incredible. It’s been so long since bringing back Pedro The Lion that I presumed he was never going to return to this country, so I was very pleasantly surprised when this Garage show was announced.
Lakes
Before we get to Pedro The Lion though, we’re treated to a set from Big Scary Monsters label mates Lakes, a six-piece (at one point seven) band from Watford. Shamefully I’ve not actually heard anything by the band ahead of this evening but I’m won over quickly – the music is stunning, the three guitars working together to create a sound full of depth, matched by the incredible vocals. A few songs in and The Garage is filling up, the band wowing an ever-increasing crowd and it didn’t take long for them to win me over either, I leave tonight’s show and check out their record on the train home. Excellent band, can’t wait to hear more.
Pedro The Lion
For these Pedro The Lion shows, Bazan has decided to focus on playing drums (and singing) for the majority of the set, a fairly recent change but when the rest of the band, comprised of Rebecca Cole and Erik Walters, sound as good as they do, why not try something new? This year’s record Santa Cruz features heavily over the course of the night but it’s a real mix of tracks from the back catalogue – hearing “Magazine” live with a band was a personal highlight as well as “Bands With Managers”, which was genuinely stunning. New track “Don’t Cry Now” stands out too, the interesting play on the bass and drums sounding as strong live as it does on record.
The crowd tonight couldn’t really be any better – there’s an excellent energy in the room yet at the same time quieter moments in the music are met with a total hush. This doesn’t go unnoticed, the few bits of talking between songs are enthusiastic while coming across as grateful. As David Bazan picks up the guitar to perform solo during the encore he acknowledges the energy in the room, deciding to just keep playing right through to curfew (“if you’ve got a train to catch then thank you for spending your evening with us, for everyone else I’m going to just keep playing”). A particularly moving version of “Priests and Paramedics” and an emotional version of “Yellow Bike” later and the night is over. There are few artists that can bring a tear to my eye multiple times in one evening but Bazan can write music that moves me like no other – I’m so glad that I finally got to hear some of these tracks as a full band. Hopefully, it isn’t eleven years until the next time.
