Guest singer Heather Myllenbeck, far left, from the Seattle, Wash., based acoustic indie band Honey and the Moon performs alongside the Portland, Ore. based indie band Archeology on Saturday night at Mac?s Bar, 2700 E. Michigan Ave., in Lansing. Archeology consists of drummer and singer Benjamin Haysom, rear left, guitarist and singer Jason Davis, middle left, bassist and singer Daniel Walker, middle right, and keyboard, guitarist, singer and Lansing local Zach Dilday, far right.
It’s not often a group playing a small local venue captures the audience’s attention from the moment they begin playing.
But Saturday night at Mac’s Bar, 2700 E. Michigan Ave., in Lansing, Oregon-based band Archeology was able to do just that. The band held the attention of the room from the moment they opened their mouths.
Beginning the show without instruments and with a four-part harmony that is just begging to be a disaster when performed live, the band took more than a little risk, and it paid off. They seamlessly delivered a multi-faceted singular voice rather than those of four separate people and, in doing so, grabbed the audience right from the get-go.
The way the group incorporated a wide range of instruments into the show was intriguing as well.
Although some of the switch-ups were more subtle than others — the use of a saxophone in one song would have gone unnoticed had the saxophone not been in front of me. It’s that sort of attention to detail I can appreciate in a band — especially one that could have been fine without stepping outside the realm of standard instruments.
Although the band did manage to play with the lineup of instruments throughout the show, the music had a very uniform sound to it, never straying too much from a very militaristic and united sound.
It was almost impressive how tightly Archeology was able to keep their style while still managing never to border on monotonous or boring. At points, the music and the lyrics alike reminded me of protest songs from the ’60s and ’70s — a rather odd feeling of nostalgia to experience in the middle of a bar in Lansing, but not an unwelcome one.
Playing a set of entirely original songs, the group continued to delightfully surprise me throughout the performance. Lead singer Daniel Walker had a very powerful voice that I honestly didn’t expect to come out of him after seeing him before the show. It was just right for the folksy sound the band were going for.
The group’s stage presence was perfect for a smaller venue, and it felt like they knew what they were doing — a quality in performers harder to find than one would think.
In a venue the size of Mac’s Bar, some bands are awful at using the intimate setting to their advantage, but Archeology was able to play to their space very well.
People throughout the bar were tapping their toes and enjoying themselves, whether they were standing up near the stage or sitting at a table near the back.
Generally speaking, I need a certain level of familiarity with the music to be able to enjoy a band live.
Although I didn’t have that luxury Saturday, the group put on a performance so solid it almost convinced me there was no way I hadn’t heard them before.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the concert — it was the perfect mix of repetition, conviction and passion, and definitely made me totally dig Archeology.
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