From time to time, I will attend a concert in which I’m looking forward to the opening act more than the headliner.
In fact, it just happened a few months ago when I saw Yuck precede Tame Impala at Lincoln Hall in Chicago. I only made it through a couple of songs before I walked out on the headliner.
But no matter how much I liked the “smaller” band, I can, at the very least, always remember the main act.
That wasn’t the case when I saw The Head and The Heart last year. During a free show under the Space Needle in their hometown of Seattle, THATH so overshadowed the other groups, that I had no recollection who they were opening for. (As it turns out, the headliner was Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band.)
The Head and The Heart – Down In the Valley
The six-piece has drawn a lot of comparisons to bands such as Fleet Foxes, The Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons. But I think their most similar contemporary might be Dawes.
THATH released their self-produced, self-titled debut in 2010. Then, after a heated battle for their services, they signed with Sub Pop Records, which remastered and re-released the album in April of this year.
The Head and The Heart – Lost In My Mind
One of the notable things about THATH’s best songs is the way they slowly unfold. About halfway through the 5-minute-long “Down In the Valley”, the song changes course, picks up the pace and gets really good. (Sidenote: Considering my current profession in the newspaper business, I particularly like the line “… wish I was a slave to an age-old trade.”)
“Lost In My Mind” doesn’t pick up until the 1:30 mark. And in another strong ditty, “Sounds Like Hallelujah”, it isn’t until the 1:40 mark that the song alters course and becomes more enjoyable.
The Head and The Heart – Sounds Like Hallelujah
They’ve been in Chicago a couple of times this summer, and I just missed seeing them when they opened for The Decemberists. But they’ll be back in town in October, so I may have to make a special trip over to the Windy City.
Infinite Shuffle 
[…] The Head and the Heart – The Head and the Heart … Another band that I’ve seen live (in 2010) and missed seeing a couple of times this year, this Seattle crew is just the latest in a wave of great solid indie folk acts. … Favorite song: “Lost In My Mind” […]
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[…] taking advantage of some great harmonies, the band is reminiscent to such contemporaries as Dawes, The Head and the Heart, Fleet Foxes and Lord […]
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[…] Shins, Bloc Party, Delta Spirit, Metric, Dawes, The Head & The Heart, fun., Of Monsters and Men, First Aid […]
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[…] As you can tell from the above song, the Lumineers’ sound is pretty straight-forward folk rock/Americana. As far as comparisons, all of the usual suspects should come to mind, but the most prevalent is probably The Head and the Heart. […]
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[…] Icelanders, Milo Greene would fit nicely on a playlist that included Mumford & Sons, The Head and the Heart, The Lumineers, The Avett Brothers and Fleet […]
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[…] of popular indie-folk groups, such as Mumford & Sons, The Avett Brothers, The Lumineers and The Head and the Heart and the poppier Imagine […]
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[…] Fleet Foxes, Blitzen Trapper, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Of Monsters and Men, The Head and the Heart, The Lumineers, First Aid Kit and Dawes selling millions of records, this genre has reached an […]
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[…] by such groups as Fleet Foxes, The Avett Brothers, Mumford & Sons, Dawes, The Lumineers, The Head and The Heart, The Lone Bellow, Ivan & Alyosha and many […]
Pingback by 194 – The Strumbellas | Infinite Shuffle — February 19, 2014 @ 5:17 pm
[…] the indie-folk category. Not only was I posting about groups such as Mumford & Sons, Dawes and The Head and The Heart, I was often referencing them while drawing comparisons to a slew of up-and-coming […]
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