Review of Page France @ The Webster Underground 12-5-06

"Hell is a half-filled auditorium" - Robert Frost.

Well, even through Frost is from our neck of the woods, he clearly wasn't at the Webster Underground on December 5th. Page France came out full force for the small crowd, making believers out of everyone there. This was my first time hearing them, and I was especially struck by the powerful beauty of "Antarctica", and the vocal/xylophone melodic layers in "Junkyard". This is where I first heard Whitney Mcgraw's voice, which immediately felt like I was listening to my best friend singing along with the radio. I loved it, and more importantly, it felt familiar, like it belonged.

As a lyricist, I immediately went for the lyrics. So many bands lose me these days for two reasons. One, I don't understand the lyrics; or Two, they suck. Page France avoids these both by blending Michael Nau's poetry into their songs perfectly. "You were told to bloom majestically / And love until your hands bleed." I don't know how old he is, but he seems to be a song machine, and he doesn't write filler. Granted, I didn't know what that Elephant song was about, but I knew just by the bands delivery that it wasn't filler.

I'm sure he has enough comparisons to Jeff Magnum so I'll at least say I see more of a nod towards Colin Meloy of The Decemberists, and Win Butler of The Arcade Fire. And Jeff Magnum only really put out like two albums worth of material anyway, so I'm sick of other vocalists being compared to him. If he ever comes out with another album, I'm going to be like "He sounds a bit like Michael Nau of Page France", and see what he says to that.

After the show, all the members of the band seemed very gracious, friendly, almost shy in a way. As a vocalist who smokes, I was pleased (in a sense) to see Michael step out for a cigarette. They weren't even too weirded out when I offered all 10 of them (anathallo included) a place to stay at my house. Alas, they were off to Philly that night, and the Page France/Anathallo/Cup of Sun late night song session would have to wait.

All in all the show was great, and I got one more lucky chance to see a great band in an intimate environment, so I can complain later when they are playing some huge ballroom that I “used to see these guys play in front of fifty people”.

- Sam Dillon