The Walkmen @ Webster Hall, NYC – pics

photos by Tim Griffin

"Several songs into the Walkmen's sold-out show at Webster Hall Thursday, Hamilton Leithauser wryly prefaced the band's first "hit" song "We've Been Had" by explaining that he'd just turned 31 the day before, Tax Day, April 15th. Anchored by Walt Martin's now-classic tinkering piano line, the band lurched into a half-speed rendition of the tune - the same one that once soundtracked a Saturn sedan zipping around exotic locales several years ago - that lent it an unexpected sweetness and vitality all these years later. When Leithauser warbled, "See me age 19 with some dumb haircut from 1960, moving to New York City, live with my friends there we're all taking the same steps, they're foolish now," he traded in his caustic bite and delivered it instead with an appropriately wistful tone of nostalgia; as it turns out, the Walkmen are growing up. They've moved to the city, lived with their friends here, moved away, dispersed, and come back together again. But they're not foolish. After the song, Leithauser joked, "we can play it that way now that we're in our thirties."" [EarFarm]

Beach House and The Antlers (who filled in for Cymbals Eat Guitars) opened the show. More pictures from the headliner's set, below...