Photos by Ian Doreian

Testifying to a warm welcome in the middle of a Narnia winter,  Will Butler was moved down the block from TT the Bear’s for a celebratory show at The Middle East. Good thing, too. The sold-out show was a raucous Friday affair for Arcade Fire‘s one-man-band instrumentalist and his solo album, Policy. Even though the album isn’t released until March 10, thanks to legal (and less-than-legal) streaming, there was strong audience participation.

Butler’s band, a melange of standing percussionist (Antibalas’s Miles Arntzen), family keyboardist (sister-in-law Julie Shore), and backup singers, covered Policy‘s ten songs with precision even when guitar cords and monitors fuzzed out. Butler took it in stride, a bemused grin floating under shagged hair. And his white tuxedo jacket, splattered with reddish dye, and shirt cufflinked with a safety pin, gave a rumpled lounge singer vibe.

To fill a proper headlining set, as the album runs for 27 minutes, Butler performed songs from his week-long song composing project with UK newspaper The Guardian. It had the effect, though, of undercutting some of the concise power of the album. Still, songs from Policy sounded more loose, perhaps freed from the extra saxophone and clarinet studio arrangements. The gospel tinged “Son of God,” harmonies and clap rhythm assisted from cocktail-dressed background singers, proved that Policy is more than an Arcade Fire side-project. Butler certainly employs similar themes, “nothing lasts forever I’ve been told,” yet expands his laments with profane force, “but some of this shit’s gettin’ pretty old.”

The set built energy from “Something’s Coming,” a song with Talking Heads groove. It also pulls off some Arcade Fire dénouement magic as song’s closing section abruptly switches tone, and this shift sustained what a zero transition sprint through a Violet Femmes cover, and into an unscheduled encore. Like with his other band, Will Butler and his songs are best experienced live. Boston and Cambridge certainly felt that way, and Butler graciously signed and selfied long after the final note.

Full fotobom here!

Setlist

Cold
Son of God
Clean Monday
Anna
Finish What I Started
Surrender
You Must Be Kidding
Sun Comes Up
Madonna Can’t Save Me Now
Something’s Coming
Public Defender
What I Want
Sing to Me
Witness
American Music (Violent Femmes cover)
Take My Side
I Don’t Know

Encore (Butler on solo guitar)

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IAN DOREIAN

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