Okkervil River / The Borderline, London
Okkervil River go the extra smile
Words Jake Bickerton
Photography Rachel Lipsitz
If somewhere like Butlin’s, or perhaps a luxury cruise liner, decided to hold a smiling contest, the female contingent in the Okkervil River audience tonight would sweep the board.
It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly why, but there’s something about the Austin, Texas act (this year celebrating its tenth birthday) that raises big and proper grins. Affable and refinely attired singer Will Sheff, with his poetic and beautiful words, helps a lot. The band’s fanbase seem in awe, shifting from revered silence during the quiet bits to enthused nodding and some almost-dancing during the louder parts. The girl next to me knows what the opening and closing songs are going to be before proceedings kick off and makes little heart signs at the start of the slow ones and streaks her fingers down her face to depict sweat (I think) before the faster numbers.
Although the band’s instrumentation is standard fayre of bass, drums, guitar and keys, there were sporadic appearances from a trumpet and a Spectrum-style portable cassette player. One of the guitarists (The Wrens’ Charles Bissell, who stepped in to replace Brian Cassidy when he stopped touring with the band two months ago) had a greedy 12-pedal thing going on, which combined to make a most convincing country steel guitar sound. The intricate, delicate arrangements and sometimes strange chord sequences of their tunes meant not all are instantly appealing. Tonight, though, in the intimate environs of The Borderline and in front of staunch Okkervil aficionados, none had a problem hitting home. The ridiculously titled ‘Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe’, mini anthem ‘Unless It Kicks’ and ‘Plus Ones’ in particular shone through as sparkling gems of finely crafted pop.
