The Local Natives ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

A bout of winter’s first snow wafted through Capitol Hill as we wandered the icy streets looking for an elusive free parking spot on a Saturday. We walked up to twenty-odd people standing distraught in the cold, milling about the entrance to Neumos where at the box office window a sign read ‘SOLD OUT.’ It was only 8.30pm. Considering how new these bands are, we sensed something unusual was going on.

Silverlake’s the Local Natives were tasked with warming up the slow arriving all-ages crowd and it became quickly apparent that in the 8 months since we saw them last, the Local Natives have gotten better. A lot better. These gents have the desire, and I if I thought they were well-practiced before, to my mind this time their performance elevated them to one of the best bands singing complex harmonies today. I don’t really like using the word “best” in that way, but in this case I think I can very safely use it. Nothing I’ve heard in a long time matches how tight they are performing some of these songs right now, particularly “Airplanes.” Initially I felt that aside from the fact that all the band’s were coming from L.A., they were a curious match for this tour, but then as the night went on, I realized this bill was about the beats and dance-ability for which the Local Natives also had plenty of songs to draw on. (Hence the notably missing presence of my personal favorite “World News” on the night’s set list.)

If the Local Natives only occasionally dabble in African influenced beats, Fool’s Gold has dove in head first. They’ve got a full time African drummer in addition to a full kit drummer, and with their arrival to the stage the main floor became an all out dance party. A project involving members of Foreign Born, Fool’s Gold played a frenzied non-stop 40 minutes that suffered a little bit from lacking in variation, but on the other hand seemed to draw a notoriously staid local audience out of their shells. If they were willing to dance like this for Fools Gold, what were they going to be willing to do for Edward Sharpe?

The whole night I was thinking, “Where did Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros come from?” How did a band of wandering gypsy rockers, one that drew just fifty people to a mid-day Capitol Hill Block Party set at the Vera Stage earlier this year, now handily sells out Neumos? And note on their twitter earlier that day that they’d sold out the previous fourteen consecutive shows as well? The easy answer is that there’s always an audience and base for highly danceable jam-bands. On further reflection though, the just under the surface answer was something different. The people we were talking to and that were around us, young and old, weren’t just listening and loving both the record and the live show, but passing along the knowledge and inducing their friends to come along to the show too. In huge numbers. The music was becoming a vehicle for social interaction and sharing, and the waiting people outside earlier were likely a small fraction of those turned away at the door based on the numerous disappointed and baffled cell conversations I was overhearing. Bands with that kind of organic pull are a rare breed. I keep my ear to the ground on stuff like this, and this one snuck completely under my radar.

While I couldn’t say myself that I’ve been as enamored of the record as so many others obviously have been, once the nine-strong band hit the stage I could very much begin relate to the attraction and high of being a part of a larger group experience. Frontman Edward Sharpe chatted up his audience between songs while the Magnetic Zeros never let the momentum lag for too long. The front row resembled a church of tongues, each member exhibiting the slightly vacant eyes of religious ecstasy as they twisted and lived the beat, while the rest of the front half of the floor were doing their darnedest to have their own fun, and burn a few beer calories off simultaneously. “40 Day Dream” is at the top of my list of their best songs, and with everyone in the room singing it’s ‘Ooh-ah-ah-ah’s,” live it’s got that arms-around-your-friends-by-the-fire feel that I’d hoped. “Home” was no doubt the song of the night for everyone else though, inciting an all out hoe-down and whistle-and-sing-along I’d yet to witness a Seattle crowd to loosen up enough to achieve.

So, I guess Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros will be needing a bigger room next time they roll through town. Maybe a much bigger room. Because if there is one band in the music business that’s booming in this down economy it’s obviously Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. You know, that band with that kinda spooky-looking barefoot chanting guy as it’s Chairman and CEO? Yep, that one.