Houston welcomed the Berlin-based indie rock sensation Giant Rooks back to Texas Tuesday night, with open arms. The group’s North American tour had rough beginnings as multiple members of the band came down with the flu shortly after landing in New York earlier this month, leading to a number of cancellations. Lucky for Houston, the group felt well enough to put on an incredible show on their first stop in Texas. The inimitable Fred Rabe and his cast of talented bandmates treated House of Blues to the vibrant and percussive sounds of their 2020 breakout record Rookery. Musically, the album offers a sweeping cinematic journey of rock ballades and fast paced indie hits whose combined story feels clear despite the record’s, at times, wildly cryptic lyrics. In fact, the group’s famously strange lyrics can be traced to their meager beginnings in Hamm, Germany where Rabe admits that none of the band members spoke English well but insisted on writing in the language to keep from being pigeonholed into one market; in his own words, his first lyrics were “gibberish,” later adding, in an early interview with Gem, that singing in English became a, “strange kind of fantasy language.” The quintet’s songwriting and English alike have transformed since their early days in Hamm, though, and watching them command the House of Blues main stage on a Tuesday night, so far from Berlin, made that clear.
Montclair, an indie folk-rock band hailing from College Station, Texas, opened the night with an impressive set complete with some killer guitar solos from both singer Casen Hutton and lead guitarist Clay Burkhard. With a debut album rumored to be on the way, this is a band to keep an eye on in 2023.
After Montclair’s dynamic set, the lights dimmed, a flood of blue light dressed the stage, and Rainfalls’ bright piano intro rang through the room, reminiscent of bar-bells warning theatergoers of the curtain’s imminent rise, as Giant Rooks walked into view. Though the song’s intro accompanied the band’s entrance it wasn’t sung. Instead its prerecorded instrumentals transitioned seamlessly into The Birth of Worlds and their smash hit, Heat Up, both of which (and everything thereafter) were performed live with great acoustic skill and artistry.
Songs from their 2017 EP, New Estate, lent an air of necessary contrast to the show, highlighting the evolution of their songwriting over the last few years. But most of the set was made up of songs from their debut album, all of which were met with great enthusiasm from the audience. As refreshing as their lyrical charm is the band’s boundless appetite to connect with fans across the world as was seen after the show when Frederik, Luka, and Finn were taking photos with fans outside their tour bus. The group is set to continue their tour through Texas, stopping in Dallas and Austin, before finishing off in California in late December.
About Author
