Last night Fred and I made our way to Lower Greenville in Dallas to catch the Sea Wolf and Port O’Brien show at The Cavern. This was the first show that I had been to in longer than I am willing to admit. But what a great show to get back into the rhythm of things again and to just get rejuvenated and refreshed as a person. I had forgotten how amazing a small club show can be. And when I say small, I mean small. The maximum occupancy sign read 49 (if the Fire Marshall had shown up they would have been shut down) and the stage was so small that Sara Lov couldn’t bring her band with her at all. So it goes without saying that Port O’Brien and Sea Wolf barely fit with their five piece bands.

Sara Lov opened the night for us sans the band, as mentioned above. In its place she had a turn table with all the parts recorded except for vocals and guitar. If she hadn’t said that she had a backup band before hand I still would have thought that the turn table angle was a great and original idea. It added an element of nostalgia to the show, I mean who doesn’t like the sound that a record adds to a song let alone an entire concert? Lov, who’s biography is unbelievable, has a full bodied voice with a twinge of voice inflection reminiscent of Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries (this is more prominent live than on recording). I’m sure that most of the audience at the show last night had no idea who Sara Lov was before last night but I guarantee you that they’re looking her up this morning. She left the audience in awe as she made her way through her set and Fred and I were both blown away by her cover of Arcade Fire’s “My Body Is A Cage”, even saying that we actually preferred Lov’s version over the original. You can flog us for that one later.

Port O’Brien took the stage next and hit it out of the park. I went into the show looking forward more to hearing Sea Wolf with Port O’Brien as an extra perk to the show but left a much bigger Port O’Brien fan than when I had entered. By sheer circumstance Port O’Brien’s track “Sour Milk / Salt Water” is NPR’s track of the day. NPR describes them as “ethereal folk”, which is not the band we saw last night. The group I saw was rowdy and passionate and as far from ethereal and shoegaze as you could possibly get. Not to discount NPR’s music squad, their first impression is spot on with what you would hear on the new album Threadbare but unfortunately the album doesn’t do the live show any justice. Perfect example was with Port O’Brien’s set closing song “I Woke Up Today” off their previous release All We Could Do Was Sing, where an audience member in the front row was instructed to open the box in front of him and pass out the contents. The box was full of pots, pans, lids and spoons for the audience to participate in the percussion of the track and help with “screaming parts”. Out of the park I tell you.

Sea Wolf was the final act of the night. By the time Alex Church and crew took the stage it was already well past midnight. I don’t know about anyone else but I was starting to drag, the rest of the audience was showing no signs of wavering and Sea Wolf ate up the still rarin’ to go crowd with a set featuring tracks from all their albums. The audience was definitely a factor with Sara Lov and Port O’Brien but seemed to perk up a bit more when Sea Wolf took the stage. Church was calm and calculated during their entire set, rarely breaking form to crack a joke. Some might see this as being austere but I can promise you that was not the case. This is a man that takes his music serious and that was easy to see as we listened to the seemingly countless layering that went into each song. Oft time with musicians playing multiple instruments to achieve the sound Church was looking for.

This was a show that left you wondering if the upcoming act was really going to be able to up the ante on the previous. I can’t say that I think one act out performed any other. Each brought their own flair to the stage, building on the previous acts performance which made for one of the better beginning to end concerts that I have ever been to.