Blind Pilot comes to Club Cafe

I've written before about the recent lack of quality shows at Club Cafe. To be honest, I only half-pay attention to the venue's schedule anymore since it's mostly mediocre acts no one cares about.

That changes on April 1, when Portland, Oregon pop duo Blind Pilot rolls into town. The band's album 3 Rounds and a Sound was released last year to substantial acclaim. Its songs combine gentle pop grooves with a bit of the Avett Brothers' up-tempo folk style. NPR named the record one of the year's 10 best debut albums.

The band went on a bike tour last year by themselves, but now they've got a van to accommodate their larger backing band. They played SXSW last week, and they're playing shows almost every day leading up to their show at Club Cafe on April Fool's Day.

Blind Pilot maintain their own blog, featuring photos of postcards they've been mailing from the road (though, unless they're trying to encourage stalkers, they may want to take better care to black out their mailing address!) Find them on myspace at check out the links below.

MP3: Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
MP3: Blind Pilot - One Red Thread


Video: Blind Pilot on Last Call with Carson Daly

And I'm so, whoa oh oh ooh oh ooh oh

"The guy in the flannel shirt is the pianist!" I'm pretty sure tonight was the first time I ever uttered that sentence. I just saw the White Rabbits, one of my favorites from Lollapalooza, at Club Cafe. I like this band and their catchy, punchy rock songs. They are unique in that they have two drummers, sometimes three, depending on the song, and they do a lot of freelancing - sometimes the bassist will play drums, sometimes a drummer helps out on keyboards.

They have some shows lined up with Tokyo Police Club - that would be an awesome pairing - but tonight they headlined alone. It was a quality performance, and the single The Plot sounded great. I love the group sing along at the end of Kid on my Shoulders too.

They seemed pretty accessible and stayed afterwards to chat with people. I wanted to join in but when I go to shows by myself I feel a little silly talking to the bands, don't ask me why. I guess that's just another reason for me to launch this Pittsburgh music website that I've been kicking around in my head for years, so that I can actually interview bands before they get to town...

I'm not feeling very verbose tonight so I'll leave it at that, and link to their recent performance of The Plot on Letterman: