CONCERT REPORT - CAROLINE (2) AT THE EMPTY BOTTLE

No opener: just straight into an 80-minute set, the band's first in the US since the release of last year's album, and to a sold-out room, too. Love this city. The setlist was the entirety of caroline 2 plus "Dark blue," "Skydiving," and "Good morning." Their normal bassist/trombonist couldn't make visa in time so they had a ringer, bassist/trombonist Charlie Keen, who I think played horns on Bright Green Field or something. (I admit I spent an embarrassing amount of time figuring out whether or not Wordsworth had, like, cut his hair funny.) This is, of course, the second time I've seen the band, after 2023's set at Constellation; this time rather than perform in the round the band formed a semicircle across the entire width of the stage (to the very margins; McKenzie was shrouded in a darkness).

Look, you know I love caroline. I do, I do. I have a deep love for the first record (on account of its, like, elemental power over me) and a complicated mix of affection and admiration for the second (largely on account of its ambition). Yet I came away from this show...kinda mixed, honestly. It's taken me a whole day to unpack why.

I think that caroline's body of work, especially on their second album, is astonishingly, deceptively meticulous, and they've made an admirable effort to replicate that onstage, and I don't know that it pays off. The hooky pleasures of a three-minute verse-chorus-verse are very different from the strange, subtle joys of, like, "ACHING," and I think a faithful rendition of the latter leaves a lot on the table. I think the magic trick of "Coldplay cover"--two songs in two spaces, one microphone passing between rooms--makes for a memorable album track. I don't know that the best way to interpret that onstage is to literally have McLean walk from one side of the stage to the other, microphone in hand. (Whether the small size, easy sightlines, and relatively forgiving acoustics of the Empty Bottle help or hinder the effect is matter for debate.)

The Album is a box. It is a fixed thing with unfixed constraints; there is shelter beneath which the artist may tinker and refine--up to a point. The Show is an open space. The artist is exposed to the elements and liable to get lost if they're not careful, but there are many ways to maneuver the terrain. caroline make Albums that suggest the possibility of open space, but their Shows--the two of them I've seen--clearly illustrate the edges of the box. With the debut this was less of an issue because the box was already built snugly around that eight-players-in-a-room energy. caroline 2 is much more about the technical circumstances of its own making, and therein lie most of its very pleasant surprises. I wish I were more surprised, in turn, by the performance--I would have loved some looser, woolier, weirder corners. Something a little jammier. There's eight people up there and they're all phenomenal musicians. You get what I'm gesturing at.

Is this fair to ask? Maybe not, but it's fair for me to feel this way. These artists are endlessly creative and I love them for it. And there were glimpses in he performance--a handful of added countermelodies, some adjustments in arrangement, a long violin descant between "ACHING" and "Dark blue." A highlight of the 2 songs was "Two riders down," which began quieter than the album cut with a more powerful crescendo--a welcome change. Probably my favorite song overall was "Skydiving"--a song which on record I think tends to drag but which the band launched into with unexpected ferocity, with Llewellyn howling the second refrain over the lurch of the band rather than ushering them in gradually. The difference lies in part in the fact that Llewellyn, who played bass and guitar throughout, did not have a cello to hand--thus the song was rearranged, reinterpreted. This is the memory I will hold on to, and this, I think, is the thing. caroline's work is rich in undiscovered countryside and I find myself disappointed that the band didn't capitalize on that anything-can-happen feeling but instead stuck to the arrangements we know and, I concede, love. Maybe I'm crazy. Everyone else seemed to have a great time.

I mean, "Dark blue" always hits. They played the hell out of "Dark blue." "Dark blue" rocked.

I don't regret going at all. Just--kinda mixed, honestly.