Review: Pedro the Lion at Saturn in Birmingham 4/18/22
Pedro the Lion is two albums into a five album series based on places bandleader David Bazan lived over the course of his formative years. 2019’s Phoenix was the first album and 2022’s surprise album Havasu, announced and released on the same day, is the follow up. Bazan has always been introspective and autobiographical in his work, but it’s fascinating to see these themes and ideas tied to specific places and the years he was in those cities.
If you’re into those albums then you were in luck on Monday night in Birmingham because 14 of the 19 songs he played were drawn from those two records. The show opened with the first two songs from Havasu: “Don’t Wanna Move” and “Too Much” which respectively detail his not wanting to move to Havasu at age 12 and the incredible anxiety of being the new kid at school at that painfully awkward middle school age. Up next was a small taste of older material: “Indian Summer” from the landmark album Control had the crowd bobbing their heads with familiarity.
A few songs into the set, Bazan took the opportunity to ask the crowd to mask up (it was listed as a condition of attendance at time of purchase.) An audience that was probably already 85% compliant neared 100% after his bringing it up, though he said he’d revisit the topic again in a few songs.
“Powerful Taboo” and “First Drum Set” were up next and provided one of the best two songs combos of the night. Bazan’s lyrics and way of looking at the world and his place in it still feel oddly universal even when his words are specifically about his wanting to switch from the clarinet to saxophone in the school band, but the band director only offering him the drums as an alternative because he’s “up to my ears in tenors and altos and you’re solid on the clarinet.” We all can relate to the disappointments of our own childhood yearnings even if the details are different. In Bazan’s case, his first drum set turned out to be the key to his life and future as a professional musician.
A few more songs later as he’d promised, Bazan brought up the masking situation again and pointed out that streaming services destroyed record sales as an income stream for musicians and that Covid dried up touring as a source of income for a long time and now that bands are back on the road, they’re working on razor thin margins and really need the audience to step up and mask up so that they can be as safe as possible and continue touring and make a living. At this juncture, an unruly audience member (one of maybe 2–3 unmasked people at this point) tried talking over Bazan and repeatedly interrupted him. Bazan understandably lost his patience and told the guy to stop talking and listen for a minute. I didn’t catch 100% of what the guy was saying, but it seemed to be something to the effect that he wasn’t going to wear one. Venue security swooped in and removed the guy and the rest of the evening continued smoothly with everyone adhering to the band’s request and the topic laid to rest.
Highlights throughout the rest of the set included the yearnings and disappointments of young love in “Own Valentine.” “Circle K” and “Making the Most of It” were other bright spots. “Quietest Friend,” a song about an attempt to fit in with popular kids when bullying another kid is one that I’m sure hits home for a lot of people no matter which side of the equation they found themselves on in childhood. It clearly didn’t sit well with Bazan if he’s writing about all these years later.
I assumed the band was done when music came on over the house PA after “Quietest Friend” and a lot of folks took off, but a small group at the front of the stage cheered loudly and persistently until Bazan came back on stage solo. He played “Severely Dear” and then Tom Petty’s “Walls (Circus)” from the She’s the One soundtrack before closing out the night with a full band version of “Hard to Be” from Bazan’s Curse Your Branches album. “Hard to Be” is one of his quintessential later songs in my opinion. It’s a heartbreaking look at humanity, our struggle with faith and/or the lack thereof and the rifts that causes with family and friends. Religion has always been near the center of Bazan’s lyrics whether in skepticism or devotion (and sometimes in skeptical devotion.)
These two albums are some of the quietest in the Pedro the Lion and David Bazan catalogs so expect a mostly subdued evening (in the best way possible) if they’re largely sticking to this setlist across the tour. It was a much quieter show than any other Pedro/Bazan show I’ve seen (and that’s probably around a dozen at this point), but the more subdued vibe worked well. Oceanator opened the show and was pretty hype. I wasn’t familiar with them at all, but would definitely recommend showing up early to check them out if you’re catching this tour elsewhere.
Setlist: Don’t Wanna Move, Too Much, Indian Summer, Powerful Taboo, First Drum Set, Teenage Sequencer, Model Homes, Own Valentine, Circle K, Making the Most of It, Tracing the Grid, Old Wisdom, Stranger, Good Feeling, L/S, Quietest Friend. Encore: Severely Dear, Walls (Circus), Hard to Be
Thanks once again to my friend DSmithImages for granting me use of his concert photography.
