Friday night in Houston was a busy one musically, offering several choices in a host of different genres. Many local bands were doing their thing, while The Jonas Brothers were busy busy putting the art in Wal-Mart at the Toyota Center. I decided to exercise my inner hipster at Walter's On Washington for a night of North Carolina folk featuring both Bowerbirds and Megafaun.

Read about the show after the jump

The room was only about half full when I walked in, with people hugging the walls deep in conversation. I missed the first support act, Sew What, but made it in time for my most anticipated act, Megafaun. They took the stage a few moments after i'd arrived, and started into their set with a drum heavy number. Towards the end of the first song, all three members of the band made their way to the crowd to finish in a true acoustic fashion. By doing this, they immediately won the crowd over, and the set was quite raucous from there. I can best describe their sound as a bluegrass-infused version of Akron/Family, which is fitting as they served as A/F's back-up band for an entire tour. Megafaun also made up three out of the four members of DeYarmond Edison, an almost country-folk band fronted by Bon Iver lead man Justin Vernon. Their North Carolina roots shine deep, but at times they shy away from that sound, and turn into a hipster version of the Grateful Dead – really heavy on the drums, but even heavier on the improvisation. At one point of the show, they seemingly ended a song and started thanking the audience, but soon the thank you's became more abundant, and they turned it into a vocal jam that eventually lead back into the second part of the song. Very Phishy if you ask me. Just like the first song ended, Megafaun made their way to the audience for another unplugged take on one of their songs – a bluegrass number that found them actively changing positions in the audience throughout (much like this, only in a darker room and playing a different tune).

I was completely sold by the short set, even sending out this tweet just after it had ended. The best part of the performance was that they were visibly having a good time. Later they were quoted as saying via Twitter, "Houston is the answer. I know why Ariza left the Lakers. This place makes more sense to me than any city we've played!" They grew a ton of fans with this performance, so hopefully we'll see a return to Houston real soon.

Megafaun

In between sets, I took the opportunity to check out the merchandise table, but what I found was the most fancily decorated set-up I've ever seen at a show. Littered in between the merchandise with fake candle lights, mini colored lamps, stones, wood carvings, and antlers, the table also featured a stack of colored note-cards with a solitary note next to it asking, "What does Houston mean to you?" with an arrow pointing towards the stack. By setbreak, people had already started adding their thoughts and illustrations on the note-cards, and randomly placed them about the table. Some people were getting quite heavy with their sentiments, while others would add comedic anecdotes. I asked the merch girl if they had done that prior to the Houston show, and she informed me that it was an idea they had cooked up earlier in the day. It was a freaking brilliant idea, and added a whole new element to an already divine show.

Next up were headliners Bowerbirds. Last year, I watched a take-away show featuring Bowerbirds performing in the middle of a busy french grocery, and was immediately attached to their stripped-down folk-pop style. It was in the middle of a huge wave of band discoveries for me, so I never really went back to their music after that first listen. I was already going to attend the show for Megafaun, but the addition of the Bowerbirds was quite nice. They might have been more well-recieved (by me at least...) if they'd played before the more energetic opener, but their set still stood out as a good one. The trio of Beth Tacular on accordion, keys and vocals, Phil Moore on vocals and guitar and drummer Matt Damron were flanked by Megafaun's Brad Cook on stand-up bass for the entire set. They played an hour of simple folk songs that were mostly about love with a bit of sorrow thrown in to mix things up. Moore demonstrated a knack for fronting a group – with swooning vocals and heavenly strumming, he had the female demographic singing and swaying along at full attention. While I was a fan of their set, the music was too relaxed to completely grab my attention. I'd like to see them again in a different format with an audience that wasn't completely won over by the support act.

Bowerbirds

Megafaun owned the night in my book, but Bowerbirds were still quite good. It'd been much more appropriate to flip the two acts, and put Megafaun last, especially with Houston's somewhat rowdy crowd that evening. I'd have probably walked away a bit more satisfied with Bowerbirds if that were the case.

Megafaun

Bowerbirds

Words and Photos by Jim "Eggs" Bricker