(a) setlist

1. Reconfiguration
2. Easy Way Out
3. As I Lay My Head Down
4. Land Forms
5. Desert
6. 2 Pyramids
7. Pattern
8. For 12
9. Tamer Animals
10. English Summer
11. Dark Horse
12. Weather
13. For The Last

Encore:

1. Black Tables
2. Something In The Way (Nirvana cover)
3. Great Sky
4. Dust Bowl III

(b) highlights

• seeing Other Lives for the first time and not being disappointed!
• the wonderful use of horns on several tracks – never over-powering, always just the right amount
• loved the band’s use of strings
• Jesse Tabish is an interesting frontman, an understated performer who still leads
• how their “middle plains dust bowl”-vibe was actually authentic and not annoyingly put-on like Mumford & Sons or nonsense like that

(c) lowlights

• a random drunk chick in the audience who was annoying and needed to go home

(d) overall thoughts

I had only ever heard a song or two by Other Lives before this show. My roommate is a big fan and considers the band local hometown heroes, seeing as she – like the band – hails from Oklahoma. It can be strange going into a show with no real idea how things will turn out, but I thoroughly enjoyed Other Lives. They walk this unique line of being a rock band with an alternative dust-bowl, not-quite-country edge and add a brass and strings section. And it totally works.

Their live show is a bit ethereal and intimate, personal and large-sounding at the same time. The Bowery Ballroom is a small venue, but I felt like the music could’ve beautifully filled a place like Carnegie Hall, or even bigger. The lights were coordinated to the sound in a perfect way; it felt like we had journeyed together through something real and emotional by the end of it.

Bottom Line: More people should know about Other Lives – they’ve got a huge, unique sound while still remaining intimately close with the audience, and that’s cool.