Bicycle-ridin’: indie-folk band “Blind Pilot” sways at the Linen Building

Monday night in the Boise venue, the Linen Building, the sounds of Portland-based indie folk band Blind Pilot softly assuaged the moods of a diverse audience. Accompanying them were singer, song-writer Laura Veirs and The Hall of Flames.

The show was hosted by Music from Stanley. The organization is a radio show airing on KBSU that was founded by biology instructor Ryan Peck. Throughout the summer, a series of musicians performed and were recorded live from Stanley, Idaho. The radio show plays these sets.

“I try to get more local and regional acts to play,” said Peck. “We are lucky here in the Boise area as we have an easy opportunity to create our musical landscape.”

Peck hosted the recent Josh Ritter show at the Egyptian theatre where he came in contact with Blind Pilot.

GLENN LANDBERG/THE ARBITER Blind Pilot has performed two tours via bicycle. One was cut short in San Francisco however, after getting their bicycles stolen.

Peck said he tries to bring bands he loves, including “personal favorites.”

Blind Pilot is a six-piece band, fronted by singer and acoustic guitarist Israel Nebeker. Other instruments include, stand-up bass, drums, banjo, ukulele, trumpet, and the warm ring of the xylophone. Nebeker’s vocals are smooth and soft with familiar melodies that provoke easy sing along.

Six musicians could seem like quite the bundle for creating the simplistic indie folk soundscape, but the band manages to mold all instruments into a  pleasant, unique sound.

The Xylophone is an instrument rarely seen outside of a brass band setting, though very gentle in sound, it added a unique edge to the band’s sound. I would have liked to hear more of the banjo and ukulele, though the trumpet and bass lines projected more forward energy behind Nebeker’s slower rhythmic guitar.

“I really liked the show, I’d never listened to Laura Veirs before or Blind Pilot live, only on recordings, but I was very impressed,” said freshman psychology major, Jon Gilkerson.

Blind Pilot’s popularity in Boise may be partially attributed to their west coast tours by bicycle. The founding members of Blind Pilot, Israel Nebeker and percussionist Ryan Dobrowski, both avid cyclists, embarked on their first tour by bicycle in 2008. They started in Vancouver, Washington but their tour was quickly brought to a halt in San Francisco where their bikes were stolen. A record and two members later, they once again embarked on tour by bicycle, their instruments in tow behind their cycles. This time they made it all the way to San Diego.

A large cyclist population inhabits Boise, it seems only appropriate that a band who did their first tour by bicycle would receive a mass of support from here.

The Linen Building is a special events center here in Boise located on Grove Street. To find out about future performances students may visit their Web site at http://www.thelinenbuilding.com/. For concert and radio information by Music from Stanley, students may visit their Web site, Musicfromstanley.com

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Posted by J. Freeman DeJongh on Dec 2 2009. Filed under Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.