Will Butler started tour with TEEN at Bowery Ballroom (pics, setlist, video) + stream his LP & 'Guardian' headline songs
Will Butler @ Bowery Ballroom 3/5/2015
“Both out of necessity and philosophy, I wanted it to be quick and dirty,” Butler said, reached this week in New York, where he and his new band (including zero Arcade Fire members but featuring his wife’s sister Julie Shore on keyboards and Antibalas’s Miles Arntzen on drums) are rehearsing for his upcoming solo tour, which kicked off Thursday at the Bowery Ballroom and comes to Montreal’s Le Ritz PDB, March 28 and 29.
“It’s not DIY (do it yourself),” he continued. “It was done in a beautiful studio (Jimi Hendrix’s old living room, upstairs at New York’s Electric Lady Studios), with a proper engineer, not on a laptop – but I wanted it to be fast. I did it at a studio just so I was paying for it, and I would have pressure. In Montreal, I would have said, ‘Oh, it’s good,’ and thought about it, twiddled, come back and tried some keyboard parts. Having it booked made it so I had to commit to things. – [Montreal Gazette]
His solo debut, Policy, isn’t out till next week but the Arcade Fire’s Will Butler celebrated early on Thursday night (3/5) with a sold-out show at Bowery Ballroom with tourmates TEEN. Will and his band played the entirety of his new album, plus 10 more, including a few of his Guardian headline songs and a cover of the Violent Femmes’ 1991 single “American Music.” Setlist, pics and video of from last night’s show are in this post.
If you haven’t heard Policy yet, you can stream it in full ahead of next week’s release via Spotify, below. And speaking of the songs he wrote based on headlines from The Guardian, those are all out now and can be streamed below.
Will and TEEN play Boston tonight then their tour heads back to NYC on Saturday (3/7) for a show at Baby’s All Right which is sold out. Updated dates are listed, with more pictures from Bowery, below…
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TEEN
Will Butler
Will Butler – “Son of God” at Bowery Ballroom, 3/5/2015
Will Butler – “Witness” at Bowery Ballroom, 3/5/2015
SETLIST: Will Butler @ Bowery Ballroom 3/5/2015
Cold
Son of God
Clean Monday
Anna
Finish What I Started
Surrender
You Must Be Kidding
Sun Comes Up
Madonna Can’t Save Me Now
Something’s Coming
Public Defender
What I Want
Sing to Me
Witness
American Music (Violent Femmes)
Take My Side
I Don’t Know
Encore:
(Unknown/untitled)
Will Butler – 2015 Tour Dates
Mar 05 New York, NY – The Bowery Ballroom %
Mar 06 Boston, MA – Middle East Downstairs %
Mar 07 Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right SOLD OUT %
Mar 11 Cincinnati, OH – MusicNOW Festival
Mar 12 Pittsburgh, PA – Brillobox %
Mar 13 Philadelphia, PA – Boot & Saddle SOLD OUT %
Mar 14 Washington, DC – Rock & Roll Hotel %
Mar 15 Durham, NC – The Pinhook %
Mar 16 Atlanta, GA – The Earl %
Mar 18-21 Austin, TX – SXSW
Mar 23 Chicago, IL – The Hideout SOLD OUT +
Mar 24 Bloomington, IN – The Bishop +
Mar 26 Grand Rapids, MI – Calvin College +
Mar 27 Toronto, ON – Horseshoe Tavern SOLD OUT +
Mar 28 Montreal, QC – Bar le Ritz PDB SOLD OUT +
Mar 29 Montreal, QC – Bar le Ritz PDB SOLD OUT +
Apr 11 Rotterdam, NL – Motel Mozaique
Apr 13 Amsterdam, NL – Melkweg Old Hall
Apr 14 Brussels, BE – AB Club
Apr 15 Cologne, DE – Luxor
Apr 16 Berlin, DE – Frannz Club
Apr 18 Paris, FR – Maroquinerie
Apr 20 Glasgow, UK – Art School
Apr 21 Manchester, UK – Deaf Institute
Apr 22 London, UK – Scala
Apr 23 Birmingham, UK – The Temple Room
Apr 25 Dublin, IE – Whelans
May 21 Vancouver, BC – The Imperial Theatre *
May 23 George, WA – Sasquatch Music Festival ^
May 24 Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge ^
May 26 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall ^
May 27 Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour ^
May 29 San Diego, CA – Casbah ^
May 30 Phoenix, AZ – The Crescent Ballroom ^
Jun 01 Denver, CO – The Bluebird Theater ^
Jun 02 Omaha, NE – The Waiting Room ^
Jun 03 Minneapolis, MN – Cedar Cultural Center ^
Jun 04 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall ^
% w/ TEEN
+ w/ Hearing Things
* w/ Perfume Genius
^ w/ Jo Firestone
