Freelance Whales, Black Cat, Washington DC

A large and jubilant crowd await Queens, New York five-piece Freelance Whales at Washington’s Black Cat. Saturday night shows are usually higher energy than most, but this particular night, there’s a palpable electricity in the air as punters wait for the indie pop / folk act to take the stage. The band’s debut album ‘Weathervanes’ has become an underground hit in America, with their tracks getting airplay on XFM, helping them gain new fans, young and old.

Considering their only major gigging schedules prior to this were in autumn 2009 as support for London folkies Fanfarlo and then fellow New Yorkers Cymbals Eat Guitars in early 2010, an extensive headlining tour of North America of Freelance Whales’s very own is pretty sweet. They quickly prove to the DC punters assembled they are worthy of the accolades that have been showered upon them by the music media. Material from their debut album is strong, and the proof is in the pudding live.

While the list of instruments they use is overwhelming - banjo, acoustic, guitar, electric guitar, synthesiser, electric bass guitar, harmonium, glockenspiel, drums and various other percussion such as a watering can that is beaten on with mallets – and might lead you believe that Freelance Whales the live experience is chaos, you would be wrong. Somehow, despite swapping instruments, microphones and locations on stage, the band manage to maintain cohesiveness from one track to another. Fans cheer for ‘Hannah’ and it’s easy to see why: the single’s dreamy chorus of “and if you’re partial to the night sky / if you’re vaguely attracted to rooftops’ is ethereal. ‘The Great Estates’ is an another standout; the song features a tribal rhythm and a refrain of “seep into the wood of the great estates / animals your soul will guide” that just begs to be sung along to.

The band play two new songs, one of which is ‘Enzymes’ that was released as a single in October. It begins rather un-Freelance Whales-y, with militant, louder than normal drumming, but once the beautiful vocals begin, you are back home in more familiar Whales territory. And indeed, leader Judah Dadone comments at one point, “DC is like our second home.” Dadone also reveals that he went to George Washington University for school and during his freshman year, he saw a show at the Black Cat that changed his life. There had to be pockets of people at this show for whom this Freelance Whales gig will prove equally as significant.

The surprise of the evening is the band’s chosen closer, a cover of Broken Social Scene’s ‘7/4 (Shoreline)’. It’s the wonderful marriage of the band’s well honed harmonising with their multitude of instruments, played with reckless abandon. What a perfect way to cap off a great evening, leaving everyone with smiles.