Berkeley, Calif. foursome The Morning Benders played in front of a small but eager crowd at Neumo’s last night, bringing their sun-bleached pop rock to the ready masses of fans dedicated enough to go out on a Monday. The smaller turnout and lead vocalist Chris Chu’s propensity for between-song small talk with the audience gave the show a somewhat intimate feel, and the band capitalized on it to put together a solid set of songs from both of their albums.
One of the most apparent things about the show was the rather thin level of vocals – which is one of the emphases of their overall aesthetic, especially on their latest LP Big Echo. With only Chu singing and bassist Tim Or providing light backup, most of their definitive harmonized sections were a bit hollow. The band made up for it by kicking the instrumentation up several notches, most of their songs building slowly into gradual crescendos before kicking off into full-fledged jams that sounded much louder than anything they have recorded, then planing out again in the smoothest of fashions.
Chu was quite the spectacle, getting so into the music that he convulsed in time with the beat and flashed constant “in the zone” expressions while exploring the fretboard with some between-verse solo bits. He and his brother Jon, backing him up on a second guitar and keyboards, communicated changes via a quick head nod or eyebrow raise, with the rest of the band instinctively following suit. These guys were definitely on the same page and the set was tight and clean throughout, especially with drummer Julian Harmon’s tom-heavy rhythms anchoring everything. It’s hard to notice on record, but that guy really holds the band together.
Some of the songs suffered from dragging on a bit too long during the slower parts, but picked up and snapped out of it more often than not. They closed with standout track “Excuses,” playing a stripped-down version that rode on some delicately-picked arpeggiated chords from John Chu rather than the album’s acoustic strums. The crowd sang along to every “bum ba-dum” and “la-da-da” until Chris Chu picked up a guitar and the softly-swaying melody transformed into a cascading rocker of an outro. It was awesome in an unexpected way, and a great end to a surprisingly lively set.
