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Young Widows played two nights at Saint Vitus, debuted their new album live (pics & video)

photos by Caroline Harrison; video by Pit Full of Shit; words by Doug Moore

Young Widows @ Saint Vitus 1/26/2014
Young Widows

Young Widws’ decision to debut Easy Pain live strikes me as canny for a few reasons. It allows the band to get out ahead of their own press cycle; they’re building hype for their new album before it even has a public release date. It allows them to get extra mileage out of the debut — they’ll almost certainly do a conventional blog-hosted stream at some point, but this video a) will travel more easily from site to site, and b) will likely reach some people that the ‘normal’ album stream does not. This format also showcases Young Widows’ considerable potency as a live band. Their performance and visual aesthetic are both airtight….

As for the material on the album itself: it’s exciting. Young Widows took a turn towards minimalism on their last album, In and Out of Youth and Lightness, but their finest moments come when they build up into a mesmerizing pummel. Easy Pain plays to this strength, regularly thrumming along to the thump of Jeremy McMonigle’s big toms.

Louisville noise rockers Young Widows played two nights at Saint Vitus on Sunday (1/26) and Monday (1/27): they played their new album Easy Pain in its entirety on Sunday, with support from Swans guitarist Norman Westberg; and their second album Old Wounds on Monday, with support from Phantom Family Halo. They’ll be repeating the same pattern starting tonight (1/28) in Philly at the Boot and Saddle, playing Easy Pain with support from Fight Amp tonight and then revisiting Old Wounds tomorrow with backup from Pigmy Lush.

We’ve got a full writeup (quoted above) & photos of the Sunday show over at Invisible Oranges. You can check a few of the photos out, plus good-sounding full videos of both Young Widows’ and Norman Westberg’s sets in this post — which means that you can hear the entire new Young Widows album.

In related news, Swans recently announced that they’ll release a new album, entitled To Be Kind and featuring guest spots from St. Vincent plus several others, this spring.

Check out the YW/Westberg videos and photos below…

Norman Westberg

Norman Westberg
Norman Westberg
Norman Westberg
Norman Westberg

Young Widows

Young Widows
Young Widows
Young Widows
Young Widows
Young Widows
Young Widows
Young Widows
Young Widows
Young Widows