Cloud Cult w/ Kid Dakota – [Live]

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Friday, 23 May 2008

To me, a Cloud Cult show is like a repeated viewing of Dead Poet's Society. Maybe a little too earnest sometimes, but emotionally they drag you all over the place, and I always end up with brimming tears, whether it's the “Oh Captain, My Captain” scene, or just before the first verse kicks in on “No One Said It Would Be Easy.” Both are also something I wouldn't hesitate to take part in if the opportunity came up, which is why I've not bought a replacement copy of DPS since I got rid of my VCR—the temptation is too great—and why I was standing at the Knitting Factory's box office, begging the attendant to let me in when an absent press list stonewalled me.

After some fiddling with my Blackberry, I was able to convince her that I was rightfully supposed to be inside—or at least that I was willing to work ridiculously hard to sell a lie—and only ended up missing a song or two of Cloud Cult's tourmates Kid Dakota. The energetic twosome definitely had some fans in the audience who were stoked to hear songs off A Winnner's Shadow, and Cloud Cult's bassist got out from behind his spot at the merch table to flesh out the sound on the last two tracks, including The West is the Future's “Pilgrim.”I was more impressed with the faces made by Ian Prince as he drummed and Darren Jackson's white guitar with the red pickguard than I was with the music, which, while proficient and even a little toe-tapping inducing, left me with the feeling that I wouldn't remember any of it in the morning. The band puts on a good show, but for me at least, it didn't sink in.

When the lights went down for Cloud Cult to play, the place went deadly silent. It seemed as if the entire crowd knew what they were in for. In fact, to look at the crowd was to notice something you don't normally see at shows in Los Angeles—an entirely hipster-free evening. There wasn't an ironic moustache in sight; sure there were moustaches, but they seemed to be sported with pride that was genuine, not of the snarky variety. In fact, if it wasn't for the celebrity contingent—the awkward twin from Eurotrip that was sadly not Michelle Trachtenburg, and Kevin Durand, aka Keamy from LOST (who is positively massive)—it could have been a show somewhere near Cloud Cult's Minnesota home.

Lead singer Craig Minowa stepped on stage in what looked like a scrubs top and a golden sleep mask, and immediately crouched down to fiddle with effects pedals as the rest of the band launched into “Hope” from 2007's The Meaning of 8, which served as a good intro—it's not a substantial song, but it prepared anyone who wasn't ready for the slow build of most of the songs from the rest of the night. Then came the aforementioned build of “No One Said It Would Be Easy.” I have to say that I wasn't as big a fan of Feel Good Ghosts (Tea Partying Through Tornadoes), but the renditions translated well in the live setting, and I've since gained a new appreciation for the band's latest album. Apparently the rest of the audience didn't have that problem, since they were already going crazy—the speaker on the right side of the stage was swinging so wildly I half expected it to detach from its moorings and clock a couple of fans before it took out the bassist.

Then came the chill-inducing part of the show, when Minowa and company launched into “Pretty Voice,” and the crowd began singing along.The combination of the two carried over into a few more from the back catalog, namely “That Man Jumped Out The Window,” “Please Remain Calm.” Minowa prefaced those two by saying “the next two song are about a pivotal place in my life…I came back from a dark place…I'm very happy to be alive,” pretty obviously referring to the death of his son and the subsequent depression and recovery from that. It's one of those things that can't be avoided in reviews of the band, since Minowa's songwriting is steeped in those events. Last year he told Ground Control “Music is the ultimate medicine for me and if I started being dishonest with it, then it really wouldn’t be medicine for me anymore. It’s saved my life so many times. There’s been times when everything falls apart and there’s no safety nets left—everything else is gone and you’re in a freefall. Wherever it comes from and whatever it is, I don’t know, but I am in love with it.”

Those feelings about the music definitely are shared by the rest of Cloud Cult. The drummer, his head dwarfed by the headphones that guaranteed he could hear all the samples Minowa regularly uses, bobbed and sang along with every song, looking absolutely thrilled to be on stage. Minowa's wife Connie—the band's resident painter—created her art in time with the songs, stepping to the mic occasionally to lend backing vocals, and everyone in the band could be spotted closing their eyes from time to time as they got lost in the music.

Songs about belief (“Story of the Grandson of Jesus”), discovery (“Journey of the Featherless”) and poop—“This song is about making poop pretty” is how Minowa introduced “Hurricane and Fire Survival Guide”—followed, the bulk of the set (if not all of it) from Feel Good Ghosts, Meaning of 8 and 2005's Advice From The Happy Hippopotamus. They pulled out all sorts of tricks, including a trombone, Minowa's garage light and a megaphone, and when it came time for the encore, Minowa ran his vocals through a vocoder as he sang “Love You All.” It was the perfect ending to a Cloud Cult show—an expression of love that flows through all of the band's music, leaving the crowd with a fuzzy feeling as we stumbled out into the street.

Download – Cloud Cult – "Everybody Here Is a Cloud" from Feel Good Ghosts [mp3]

Download – Cloud Cult – "Take Your Medicine" from The Meaning of 8 [mp3]

Download – Cloud Cult – "Outside Your Skin" from Advice From the Happy Hippopotamus [mp3]