Tides of Man & Icarus the Owl Live in New York

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Last week, I attended the Tides of Man spring headliner at The Studio at Webster Hall in New York, New York. Those in attendance were lucky to receive a crash course in the post rock genre, as some of the best current and rising acts showcased their talent.

Vasudeva, a band hailing from the growing post-rock hotbed of New Jersey, were a surprise addition to the touring bill of Covet, Icarus The Owl and Tides of Man. The surprise was certainly a pleasant one. As some longtime followers of this site may remember Vasudeva was one of my selections for AbsolutePunk’s “100 Bands You Need to Know” feature last August. This show, their first in six months, was added as something of a showcase of new material, and all but one or two of the songs they played came from an upcoming full-length. I can speak from this live experience in saying that I can’t wait to see how the record sounds after hearing these complex arrangements on stage.


I hadn’t ever heard of Covet before they took the stage, but they blew me away. The poise they displayed on stage, coupled with the way they were able to build out incredibly unique sonic landscapes, was incredibly impressive. After having listened to their most recent Currents EP after the show, it seems they may still be a bit away before their recording quality and studio performances match the product they portray on stage. Still, I came away greatly impressed, especially by the prodigious musicianship of lead guitarist Yvette Young, who sees to be the band’s primary songwriter.


Icarus the Owl was probably the ill-fitted jigsaw puzzle piece on the bill. Their angular, tapped guitar riffs and mathy time signatures were accompanied by prototypical pop-rock vocals, the only of their kind for the entirety of the night. That’s not to say it wasn’t a welcome change of pace — their set served to add a bit of diversity to what was a fairly homogenous night. While I was a fan of the band’s early work, especially 2009’s The Spotless Mind, I had fallen somewhat out of touch with their more recent material, which constituted the vast majority of their half-hour set. I will be going back to check up on their more recent material, especially after seeing how the crowd reacted to it.


It’s still pretty astonishing to me that Tides of Man has only been a post-rock band for one album. I won’t rehash the specifics of how they made this transition, but suffice to say: it is astonishing not only how comfortable they seem within their new genre, and the tropes associated with it, but just how damn good they are at exploiting those tropes to create something incredibly unique and unexpected out of it.



Photo by Craig Ismaili

Cinematic-style, crescendo heavy, post-rock has been done countless times before — many times by band’s with a great deal more experience. But it appears Tides’ unique backstory and late adoption of the style has allowed them to take a different spin than many of their contemporaries. There is a delicate, flittering atmosphere to many of their build-ups. And when the climax hits you, it often doesn’t come at you in a single tidal wave like so many others. Instead, it seems to tug at you, to overwhelm you once, then release, only to hit you again even harder. It’s a sonic assault like a boxer who keeps coming at you, no matter how many times you try to slow them down.
The band debuted a number of new songs from that as-of-yet untitled follow-up to Young and Courageous they have been working on over the past few months. A release date for the follow up is still to be announced, but from what I gathered after speaking with the band, they would like to have it out sometime in 2016.


Fittingly, they ended the set with the closing track off Young and Courageous, “Measure Your Breath.” The song forms the catharsis of the record, and certainly of the band’s live set as well. As the song reached its climactic moment, right as the first vocals kick in, guitarist Spencer Gill stepped up to the microphone:

We wrote this next part about the happiest moment in my life. I hope you’ll all think about yours and join me.
​

Together the band lifted to that euphoric moment in the song, and with a surge of energy, the crowd, which had up to that point remained fairly dormant – often the unfortunate price of post-rock shows – surged as well, singing along. I’ve always felt that moment in the song to be so triumphant, a realization of what Tides of Man left behind – a voice, a melody, an ideology – in search of something more.

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