By Cassie Osvatics
If you Google The New Pornographers, you will likely find hoards of sites that use the same band bio, the first line of which reads, “The New Pornographers are AC Newman and a group of ridiculously talented people uniquely equipped to realize his musical ambitions.” As they took stage Saturday night for the second of their back to back sold out shows at 9:30 Club, that bio could not have been more accurate.
Since their debut album Mass Romantic, the Vancouver band has held down a pretty devoted fan base while many of its members have also had solo careers on the side, most notably, frontman A.C. Newman.
The singer, songwriter, and guitarist recently contributed to a protest album called Battle Hymns, a pay what you want album that helped raise money for Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and 350.org. The album also featured Carrie Brownstein along with many other seasoned artists.
Side projects aren’t the only things The New Pornographers have been up to, though. They also founded their own record label called Collected Works Records, under which they released their most recent album Whiteout Conditions on April 7.
The band, along with touring violinist and vocalist Simi Stone, is currently on their Whiteout Conditions Tour promoting the album with support from Waxahatchee.
The opening performer was a perfect pairing with The New Pornographers and she had the crowd swaying and dancing along. Singer Katie Crutchfield’s powerful voice held the audience’s attention and coupled with the no photo or video policy for the night, all eyes and ears were on focused on her.
The New Pornographers opened with “Play Money,” the upbeat first track from Whiteout Conditions, featuring lead vocals from Neko Case, bad ass tambourine player and backup vocalist. That first song got the crowd dancing and singing along, ready for an amazing rest of the night.
After 17 years and seven albums under their belts, the band had plenty material to work with, running through each song so beautifully, blending new with old and leaving the crowd with endless smiles.
The New Pornographers will be ending their Whiteout Conditions Tour in Austin, Texas on May 6 but will continue touring afterwards, briefly in Europe before heading back to tour the U.S. and Canada. You can check out more of their tour dates here.
Featured Photo Credit: A.C. Newman, lead singer of The New Pornographers on the second night of back to back sold out shows at 9:30 Club. (Cassie Osvatics/Bloc Reporter)
Cassie Osvatics is a senior English major and can be reached at cosvatics@gmail.com.
