• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • NEWS+OPINIONS
    • NEWS TO US
    • COLUMNS
      • APPARENT HORIZON
      • DEAR READER
      • Close
    • LONGFORM FEATURES
    • OPINIONS
    • EDITORIAL
    • Close
  • ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
    • FILM
    • MUSIC
    • COMEDY
    • PERFORMING ARTS
    • VISUAL ARTS
    • Close
  • DINING+DRINKING
    • EATS
    • SIPS
    • BOSTON BETTER BEER BUREAU
    • Close
  • LIFESTYLE
    • CANNABIS
      • TALKING JOINTS MEMO
      • Close
    • WELLNESS
    • GTFO
    • Close
  • STUFF TO DO
  • TICKETS
  • ABOUT US
    • ABOUT
    • MASTHEAD
    • ADVERTISE
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • Close
  • BECOME A MEMBER

Dig Bos

The Dig - Boston's Only Newspaper

REVIEW: WILL BUTLER AT MIDDLE EAST DOWNSTAIRS

Written by IAN DOREIAN Posted March 9, 2015 Filed Under: MUSIC, Reviews

willbutler29-cover
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.

 

willbutler04-Edit

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.

 

willbutler09 crop

 

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)


 

IAN DOREIAN
Related posts
  • IAN DOREIAN
    https://digboston.com/author/ian-doreian/
    November 16, 2015
    REVIEW: THE WEEKND @ DCU CENTER, THU 11/12
  • IAN DOREIAN
    https://digboston.com/author/ian-doreian/
    October 10, 2015
    FOTOBOM: KOЯN AT THE HOUSE OF BLUES 10.8.2015
  • IAN DOREIAN
    https://digboston.com/author/ian-doreian/
    July 14, 2015
    REVIEW: U2 @ TD GARDEN, FRI 7/10
  • IAN DOREIAN
    https://digboston.com/author/ian-doreian/
    May 20, 2015
    FOTOBOM: THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH @ ORPHEUM THEATRE, 5/14

Filed Under: MUSIC, Reviews Tagged With: Antibalas, arcade fire, Cambridge, fotobomb, Middle East, Miles Arntzen, policy, side project, son of god, violent femmes, Will Butler

WHAT’S NEW

A View of the Harvard Square Pit in June 2022. Photo by Jason Pramas. Copyright 2022 Jason Pramas

Why This Pit Kid Is Not Going to ‘Pit-A-Palooza’

Reader Responses: "Unruly, Argumentative Governor's Council ..."

Reader Responses: “Unruly, Argumentative Governor’s Council …”

Inbox: Legislation To Protect Vote for Eligible Incarcerated Voters on Baker’s Desk

Inbox: Legislation To Protect Vote for Eligible Incarcerated Voters on Baker’s Desk

Mental-Health Program Provides Alternative to Emergency-Room Boarding

Mental-Health Program Provides Alternative to Emergency-Room Boarding

Unruly, Argumentative Governor’s Council Inflames Parole Board Hearings

Unruly, Argumentative Governor’s Council Inflames Parole Board Hearings

Photos courtesy of CAIR-MA

Food, Folks … and Fear?

Primary Sidebar

FEATURED EVENT

Advertisement

Most Popular

  • Dig This: The Return Of the Boston Seafood Festival
  • No Smoking, No Thank You. Advocates Decry Cannabis Social Consumption Rules in Mass
  • Meet the Phantom Behind Greater Boston’s Awesome Food Feed Everybody Gotta Eat
  • Dig This: The Hot Dog Safari Food Truck & Craft Beer Festival
  • FOTOBOM: WILCO’S SOLID SOUND FESTIVAL

Footer

Social Buttons

DigBoston facebook DigBoston Twitter DigBoston Instagram

Masthead

About

Advertise

Privacy Policy

Customer Service

Distribution

About Us

DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an e-mail blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: [email protected] To reach Editorial: [email protected] For internship opportunities: [email protected]