Steamboat

Item: Awaiting Your Return
Author: Josh Spencer

Awaiting Your Return

(1998)

Reviewed by Josh Spencer

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Label Red Crown Record EmpireThe Phantom Tollbooth1998

alternative rock indie rock worship

If you ever want an authentic indie rock band to play worship for your church, to stir your heart with beautiful melodies and move you to praise with fat-fuzz guitars, Steamboat is the band. They've got a strong Poor Old Lu (Straight Six and 8th Wonder... especially) influence in every aspect of their music, from the interplay between the drums, guitars and bass to the song structures and the rhythms, punctuated at times by a Starflyer 59-type droning distortion. The vocals float along lightly, with generous echoing effects added, bringing to mind Poor Old Lu's Straight Six again. But the thing that sends them soaring is the pleasing addition of flute, cello, french horn, and violin, which makes for some really gorgeous music. At times you get the feel of a college orchestra trying their hand at playing intelligent rock 'n' roll at their local coffeehouse.

Progressive tendencies also take this band over the top--they play in 3/4, 5/4, and 11/4 along with the regular 4/4 time. These guys are true musicians, without robbing the music of accessibility. For the inattentive listener the songs might tend to run together a bit, with a somewhat uniform tone throughout, but that only marks them comfortably with other melodic-vibe favorites (or soon to be favorites) like Bloomsday, Champion Birdwatchers, and Sunny Day Real Estate.

The lyrics take much of their content straight from paraphrases of the Word, with a good measure of personal application. You always know what they're talking about, which makes this a great album for non-poets like myself in need of edification and worship. It might be easy for elitists to cringe at such lyrics if they came from a lesser band, but with Steamboat it's all real and refreshing.

If you have a chance to catch them live, do it. Sometimes they play with only an acoustic guitar and cello, and other times with an entire orchestral section and buzzing electric guitars. But first...buy the CD. It's one of the best indie albums in recent years.

4 tocks