Kadman | Image by City Paper Digi-Cam
It's only been a year since Baltimore shoegaze trio
released its debut album,
Sing to Me Slower
, but the band has been quickly developing and changing since then. The only member left from that album's lineup is founding singer/guitarist David Manchester, and the material being worked on for the follow-up shows the benefits of a new rhythm section. On Thursday night, Kadman played a brief set at the Metro Gallery to showcase some of the new songs, and the new lineup's take on the old songs.
Upright bassist James Bahleda is a valuable addition, and some of the best moments of the band's set came when he held down the melody while Manchester let a little feedback ring out. Unfortunately, Bahleda was drowned out by the rest of the band a little too often, and hopefully will be more audible at future shows. Manchester's introduction for "Honeymoon's End," explaining how the song was inspired by his own actual honeymoon, gave a new dimension to one of the band's best tunes. And the band closed with a surprisingly uptempo new song that may help break Kadman out of the self-imposed slow and low limitations of their previous material.
The Thursday show was opened by
, a solo singer/songwriter who appeared a little nervous and inexperienced, but gave a pleasant, ingratiating performance. The real gem of the show was the other opener,
, a husband/wife duo from North Carolina. Singer/guitarist Andrea Connolly's sweetly smoky voice and twangy tunes with Pete Connolly's complementary harmonies and bombastic drums combined to create one of the more complete, full-bodied sounds ever to come out of a two-person band. The only frustrating thing, however, was that the killer standout of Birds and Arrows' set, "Not Interested," is a newer tune not yet available on record. But, like Kadman, their previews of unreleased songs made a good case for keeping an eye out for a future release date.
