By Mother’s Day Orphan Productions. Writers: David Leigh Abts, Aja Becher, Leslie Blodgett. Photos: Elizabeth A. Abts
Keep Jim Morrison dead. An Aussie by marriage, Immigrant Union frontman Brent DeBoer is better known as The Dandy Warhols’ drummer, but watching him onstage with Bob Harrow and their band, he reminds you that tuning a guitar is something to get wet over. He spends half his time with these guys in Melbourne, Victoria, and they’ve just wrapped up their North American tour. Not to blow sunshine up the rear ends of true artistes, but this set is a ladder to the sun at the CMJ Music Marathon.
Immigrant Union’s second album, Anyway, is self-described as country-alt-folk-psychedelic rock. New Yorkers had the rare opportunity to see them up to three times on this tour. They played the CBGB Showcase at Pianos in the Lower East Side, and had a late-late midweek slot at CMJ as well. So by Friday, they’ve developed a crowd of fans that all try to pack in to Pete’s Candy Store for the last New York gig of the tour.
The venue is already hot and sweaty from previous bands. I have a chance to talk to the band before they go on stage, but I only have time for one question. I dig in: “Are you pumped for your set?”
Drummer Paddy McGrath-Lester responds with a story of his own. He’s at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, and Ozzy Osbourne is winding up for his final song. He screams out to the crowd, “This is going to be our last song. Unless you really lose it, then we’ll come back out and do another.” The fans respond with a tepid golf clap. Ozzy comes back for an encore anyway.
Perhaps that humility, or lack thereof, made an impact. Immigrant Union takes the stage and suddenly you can let go of all your genre expectations. Your dad can get down, your mom can pop a hip, and even the toughest wallflowers around me start to shake down. The set list sounds like some fantasy radio DJ: psych rock, folk country, and indie pop no longer require a different station for each tune.
Damn catchy and lyrically-bound, these indie immigrants remind us we are all united in the here and now from different places – in life, in love and in music.
On this tour the five-piece saw the Northeast from Boston to the Jersey shore to Philly; charged across to Detroit, Chicago, and Cincinnati; and ended with a West coast leg, hitting Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.
Everywhere they have gone, the band has left more than a few people wondering: When will you be coming back? The New York Times says, “Immigrant Union revived the folk-rock wing of psychedelia.” The track “War is Peace” is praised as a favorite new song by NPR Music.
The fun has ended (for now) with a show in DeBoer’s hometown of Portland Oregon.
Also pictured: Peter Lubulwa on keyboard and Ben Street on bass.
Bonus: listen to “Pixie Crib,” a track from Immigrant Union cofounder Bob Harrow, here.
Check out Immigrant Union online here.
This has been another Mother’s Day Orphan Production, www.mothersdaystories.com
Photos by Elizabeth A. Abts.
