The Angel Orensanz Foundation for the Arts maintains a building on Manhattan’s Lower East side—an old synagogue, Gothic in high ceilings and ornate style. Taking Back Sunday invaded this space in mid-December of 2009 and recorded their acoustic performance there, which just recently came out in both DVD and CD format. The DVD functions dually as a taped concert and a “The Making Of” that taped concert. Adam Lazzara discusses the challenge of adapting the typical Taking Back Sunday sound to acoustic instruments without compromising its integrity. The wheels churning behind his eyes and those of the others in the rehearsals is comically natural, and Matt Rubano’s insight into how Mark O’Connell’s drumsticks end up all over Matt in wood shavings and splinters is a priceless exchange, made slightly odd now that Rubano is no longer a Taking Back Sunday member.
There wasn’t a traditional stage at the Orensanz. Rather, the band set up on the perimeter of a square in the center of the room, each facing inwards towards the others. The sound escaped from throat, from guitar, from drum, and mingled in the empty area of the square before filling the high ceilings and shooting to the balcony.
“MakeDamnSure” is the first song in the selection, a safe kickoff to a night of new. Lazzara plays with the melody on the last syllable of each phrase over quiet guitar picking as the audience’s clapping is the percussion. Passionate shouts return for the closing choruses of the song, maintaining studio integrity. “New Again” and “Set Phasers To Stun” follow suit with Lazzara taking full advantage of the slightly subdued music and letting his whine and attitude roll over the notes with a now-dignified meaning in each line.
Taking Back Sunday just loves to mess around it seems. “One-Eighty By Summer” features a hyper-focused Lazzara on xylophone, “Carpathia” he on a drum, “Everything Must Go” a stand-up bass. Each track is touching in its oddity and focus on the lyric: a high pitched “defenseless, dependent” that taps into a vocal harmony never felt on a studio recording.
The audience respected the sanctity of “Your Own Disaster,” leaving only the instruments to paralyze the church. Lazzara gets raw and pseudo-hoarse on “My Blue Heaven” and “Didn’t See That Coming,” licensed to experiment with being pitchy only in this setting.
Nothing else would close the selection than “Cute Without The ‘E.’” Lazzara calls it “Cut From the Team,” but the whole audience seems to think they’ve been drafted as back-up vocals, nearly drowning out the band. Shouting having been stripped, this version of the renown Tell All Your Friends record breathes with different holes and pulls harder on different heartstrings. The same way it always has though.
****.5/*****
*This review was composed by Emily Coch
