Promoting their debut album, Milo Greene came to Madison for
their second time at the High Noon Saloon Saturday night. The five-piece pair
played with opener Bahamas.
Bahamas is more of a one-man show. The four piece set of
guitar, drums and two backup singers provides a spotlight for Afie Jurvanen,
the guitarist, to showcase his musical prowess.
Standing on stage in a denim jacket and a clean green hat in
the vein of Indiana Jones, Jurvanen played his occasionally soothing,
occasionally upbeat tracks, mostly off his new album. Live, however, his
music takes on a whole other form.
Jurvanen doesn’t emphasize his ability as a guitarist in
his albums, opting typically for clean riffs, conservative solos and overall
simple, but enjoyable songs. Yet onstage, he lets it rip. In between drum fills
and atmospheric backup vocals, Jurvanen throws in little guitar solos that are
clearly inspired by classic American rock.
As Bahamas’ performance went on, the crowd slowly loosened
up as well. Playing one of the hits off his most recent album Barchords, he invited
the crowd to dance, and some obliged. Even in their mellow songs, the band
found a way to give a certain amount of energy to the crowd that built song by
song.
There’s an endearing characteristic about Jurvanen, too. A
Finnish-Canadian, he looks distinctly, if not comically, American. His garb is
rugged but well kept, his guitar old but in similar condition. When factoring in his musical style, he seems like an ode to a certain sense of classic
Americana.
That said, he maintained his bizarre sense of
humor. Throughout the show, he managed to produce a few laughs from the
audience. After, he darted offstage to the back of the venue, where he manned
his own table and sold his gear.
Milo Greene, on the other hand, was a more balanced
ensemble, with all five members showing off their abilities. Sometimes
switching instruments, sometimes serving as backup vocals, the performance
brought a different, but still solid, sense of energy when compared to Bahamas.