The Appleseed Cast + Dreamend - Chop Suey (Seattle, WA; Mar 10, 2010)

When old-school emo rockers The Appleseed Cast announced they were going on tour to perform 2001’s Low Level Owl 1 and 2 live and in their entirety, the band’s fanbase reacted with incredulous excitement. After being counted out time and time again, the group, whose first album came out more than 12 years ago, has always emerged from its home in Lawrence, Kansas, with plans of a new tour or announcement of a new album in the works. But a tour devoted to performing the sprawling two-album set in its entirety sounded more like a fan-forum fantasy or flippant request yelled to the band during a show than a reality.

The last emo band standing from the mid-’90s, a time when emo didn’t entail tight jeans and eyeliner, The Appleseed Cast still plays music that’s unabashedly earnest and fearlessly heartfelt—even now, when the independent music culture celebrates cuteness and novelty as much as songsmanship.

Before The Appleseed Cast performed at Chop Suey in Seattle for this Low Level Owl tour, I spoke with guitarist Aaron Pillar, who said the band planned the tour mainly to challenge itself—the band had never performed an album in its entirety before. Perhaps no two albums in the band’s catalog are better-suited for this kind of performance, as many of the songs run into each other. Still, turning the densely embellished studio albums into a live show was no small feat. The band spent most of last summer rehearsing for this tour, taking notes to use while on stage. Performing Low Level Owl 1 and 2 was made more difficult by the fact that the band’s bassist and drummer didn’t join until well after the albums were released.

First to hit the stage was Chicago band Dreamend. As attendees trickled in, they reacted enthusiastically to the band’s pop-infused take on shoegazer and post-rock. Frontman (and Graveface Records name-lender) Ryan Graveface’s nasally voice and poppy vocal melodies contrasted well with the band’s moody and intricate backing tracks. Particularly effective was the drumming, which was precise and deliberate.

Shortly thereafter, Appleseed Cast members cued up a montage of old films contrasting outdated advertisements and interesting landscape shots, and set up to perform in front of it. From the moment the sparse, bright, echoing guitar notes of opening song “The Walking of Pertelotte” rang out, there was hardly a break in the music as the band rolled through the dense, minor-key arpeggios of “Blind Man’s Arrow,” the soaring, percussive chorus of fan favorite “Steps and Numbers,” and the slowly building and mesmerizing instrumental song “View of a Burning City,” which both ends Low Level Owl 1 and begins Low Level Owl 2.

Throughout the The Appleseed Cast’s career, its albums have progressively gravitated more toward the ethereal than the abrasive, but their live rendition of the Low Level Owl albums struck a balance between the two. Raw, impassioned vocals and thunderous drums collided with majestic, swirling guitar melodies. Arpeggios and riffs, projected by the band’s liberal use of delay pedals and feedback, mounted upon each other and bounced from wall to wall. When discernible amid the din, Crisci’s lyrics conveyed vague, impressionist stories of nostalgia, apocalypse, and redemption. One would have been hard-pressed to envision a more riveting meld of post-rock and classic emo.

Fans hoping for The Appleseed Cast to use their encore to stray from the night’s stated agenda were sent home a little disappointed. The band didn’t dip deep into their catalog to perform any raucous fan favorites from 90s albums such as Mare Vitalis. Nor did they showcase any tracks from last year’s Sagarmatha. The single encore song was a well-received cover of The Van Pelt’s plodding and poetic “Speeding Train,” a song that might sound more in place if The Appleseed Cast performed it alongside songs from its hard-rocking debut album The End of The Ring Wars. Still, the song was an oddly fitting finale. According to guitarist Aaron Pillar, “Speeding Train” is the first cover song the band has ever performed. Its performance reinforced the fact that while The Appleseed Cast can create beautiful soundscapes, its roots are still entrenched in the early days of virile, sincere emo.

DOWNLOAD: The Appleseed Cast - Steps and Numbers (MP3) or Follow us for more The Appleseed Cast MP3s (Twitter)

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