Tim Kasher, the singer of the Good Life, is also the frontman of Cursive, a band who favor cello as an integral part of their arrangements. Both bands are based in Nebraska, but in his guise as Good Life vocalist upstairs at the Middle East last Sunday night, Kasher sang with the snotty aplomb of the Cure’s Robert Smith. There was even something British about the set-up of his band, which featured keyboardist Jiha Lee and drum-machine maestro Ryan Fox sculpting each song from a mix of warm, mechanized beats, sequencer-enhanced synths, and electronic loops embellished at times by organic sax and clarinet.
Kasher’s heavy reliance on keyboards and electronics on stage with the Good Life gave the performance a goth/new-wave feel redolent of their Saddle Creek labelmates the Faint. But the Good Life didn’t hesitate to rock out when a song called for heavier guitars, particularly on tracks from their debut, Novena on a Nocturne (Better Looking), and on some from a forthcoming Saddle Creek full-length titled Black Out. Spirals of electric guitar dominated parts of Black Out’s "O’Rourke’s, 1:20 a.m." and Nocturne’s "A Dim Entrance," as did sudden periods of silence. The results mirrored the mixed and often frayed emotions of Kasher’s lyrics. The effectiveness of these jarring shifts in dynamics was especially evident on the anguished set-closing "A Dim Entrance," which featured tortured rather than ebullient rounds of "la la la" repeated as a broken-hearted mantra.
At one point, Kasher did attempt to lighten things up a bit — "We’re having a party up here," he insisted, before encouraging the crowd to call out Cursive requests because the set was getting "too serious." But that didn’t do much to change the overall tone, which settled into a drunk ’n’ drowsy late-night-and-alone melancholy early on and never strayed too far. Which is not to say that the show itself was a downer: as with all catharsis, there was a uplifting quality to Kasher’s downbeat confessions.
In contrast to the occasionally manic outbursts that peppered the Good Life’s set, Azure Ray’s were even-keeled and calming from beginning to end. The Athens duo, who are touring as the Good Life’s opening act, even went so far as to thank the rapt crowd "for being so quiet — we appreciate it a lot." Singer Maria Taylor’s torchy vocals bring to mind Mazzy Star’s hazy Hope Sandoval at times and the sunnier shimmer of the Sundays’ Harriet Wheeler at others. Joined by Orenda Fink (who also plays with Taylor in the band Little Red Rocket) and a third, supplemental musician, Azure Ray relied on the intoxicating beauty of their music to do the talking. Languid guitar notes floated over a droning backdrop of keyboard chords, leaving Taylor free to grab the spotlight.
