Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival, 5 July 2015
Over the summer I had the great pleasure of seeing one of my favourite bands, The War on Drugs, at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, one of the most iconic music festivals in the world. I’ve listened to Lost in the Dream, seemingly on repeat, since its release in March 2014. I am really not sure how to concisely describe it. The music is complex, imaginative, and lustrous. The lyrics are sharp, poignant, and exacting. The overall production is something to behold. It’s hauntingly beautiful. It’s devastating. There was no way I could pass up the opportunity of hearing some of the songs I’ve come to love played right in front of me. However, when entering the venue I felt a little uneasy because some part of me felt that the band would be unable to capture the intricate sound found on the album. My suspicions were wrong.
The War on Drugs hit the stage in Montreux as part of their aptly named Still Lost in the Dream tour. Founding member and songwriter, Adam Granduciel, was dressed in his patented denim jacket. The concert was packed to capacity with two thousand fans at the Jazz Lab, which is part of the attractive and large complex of venues for the Jazz Fest. Montreux is a stunning and ritzy little city nestled along east side of Lake Geneva. The predominately Swiss crowd was somewhat subdued and nowhere near as rowdy as I would expect a North American audience to be. The band opened with “Burning,” one of my favourites from Lost in the Dream (Heck, what I am saying? They are all my favourites). After experiencing the end of a long term relationship, Granduciel was in a dark place during the creation of large parts of Lost in the Dream. A great deal of his pain comes through in the lyrics. On “Burning,” Granduciel sings, “I’m just a burning man, trying to keep the ship from turning over… again.” Right from the start, the mood was set; this was going to be a serious show with the band determined to hit every note flawlessly.
The set list was comprised largely of songs off Lost in the Dream. “Red Eyes,” another one of my favourites, was a highlight of the evening. When Granduciel lets out a “woo” around 1:45 into the song followed by a wicked guitar solo, you throw all your cares away and a moment of tremendous release is experienced. It doesn’t matter that you work tomorrow. Other highlights were the epics “An Ocean in Between the Waves” and “Under the Pressure.” The crowd was also greeted with a couple of gems off the excellent 2011 album Slave Ambient: “Baby Missiles” and “Best Night.” Every song sounded incredible, some even better than on the albums. There was an element of spontaneity added to many of the songs that made them feel fresh.
The band is composed of a weird mix of personalities. Granduciel appeared somewhat introverted for the leading man of a rock band. For many of his guitar solos—a prominent feature of The War on Drugs—he faced the drummer and not the audience. There was little interaction with the crowd. Granduciel did however point out the irony that they were playing at the Jazz Festival and that he believed they were the only band that had a saxophone player in the line-up. Drummer Charlie Hall is one of the most animated drummers I can recall seeing live and very fun to watch. On the other side of the spectrum there is robotic keyboard/guitar player Anthony LaMarca. He never cracked a smile, it was all business.
The War on Drugs spent the better part of a year recording Lost in the Dream. If you are not familiar with how long it usually takes a band to record an album in studio, this is an absurdly long time. Granduciel is a notorious perfectionist. Hot off the heels of the success of Lost in the Dream, the band recently signed a two-album deal with Atlantic Records, jumping ship from the indie, Indiana-based label Secretly Canadian. I anxiously await the next War on Drugs album, a sentiment I am sure I share with many others. How will the move to a major label affect their style? And how long will they make us wait for it? Those are my two burning questions.