Blind Pilot
Saturday, April 12, 2009
by Evan Calbi
After several years of doomsayers predicting the end of the music industry, the rapid success of Blind Pilot has proven that some tenets of the old order remain, namely that the hype generated from a good song can still feed on itself to help launch a band. While record companies once tried to place singles on commercial radio, now songs are sprinkled across the Internet on Web sites, MySpace pages, music blogs, and YouTube and Vimeo postings.
Hype must hinge on something, and with the case of Blind Pilot, it was the song “One Red Thread” that helped earn them wider recognition. The single from the band’s debut album 3 Rounds and a Sound is most notable for a chorus that defies expectations. A driving verse featuring singer Israel Nebeker’s acoustic guitar and drummer Ryan Dobrowski’s brushwork stops abruptly, giving way to a melancholy chorus that sounds caught in time. It is an intimate moment, one that lit up the Internet and launched the band out of their native Portland and into clubs into clubs where they played to crowds that knew the words to their songs.
The hype has carried them into an opening slot with The Decemberists later this year. Their famed bicycle tours are gone, when Nebeker and Dobrowski pedaled their way from Vancouver to San Francisco playing on street corners and in whatever clubs would allow impromptu performances. Their lineups have grown with their acclaim and now feature banjo and double bass, as well as occasional vibraphone, violins, and horns.
When they took the stage at Spaceland on Saturday, a chatty house waited expectantly. Lead by Nebeker, there was an intimacy at the core of their performance that held the crowd’s attention. What remains to be seen is if their engaging modesty will translate to the bigger venues that await them. At least they won’t be performing to people with no idea who they are. Many fans of The Decemberists will already know Blind Pilot’s songs from the Internet before they see them live. Who said the music industry is dying?
