American Football at District Music Hall (Norwalk)

Schedule

Fri Jan 31 2025 at 08:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

District Music Hall | Norwalk, CT

Advertisement
American Football
Friday, January 31st 2024
@ District Music Hall
7pm doors / All Ages
Tickets on sale NOW: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/american-football-tickets-1024997303527
--------------------------------------------------
Premier Concerts and Manic Presents:
AMERICAN FOOTBALL
The quietest voices can be the most durable.
American Football’s original triumph, on their 1999 self-titled debut, was to reunite two shy siblings: emo and post-rock. It was a pioneering album where lyrical clarity was obscured and complicated by the stealth musical textures surrounding it.
Like Slint’s Spiderland, or Codeine’s The White Birch, even Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock, American Football asked far more questions than it cared to answer. But there wasn’t a band around anymore to explain it, anyway. The three young men who made the album — Mike Kinsella, Steve Holmes, and Steve Lamos — split up pretty much on its release.
Fifteen years later, American Football reunited (now as a four-piece, with the addition of Nate Kinsella). They played far larger shows than in their original incarnation and recorded their long-anticipated second album, 2016’s American Football (LP2). The release was widely praised, but the band members still felt like their best work was yet to come.
‘I feel like the second album was us figuring it out,’ says Nate. ‘For me, it wasn’t quite done. I knew there was still more.’
Enter American Football (LP3). ‘We put a lot of time and a lot of energy into it,’ says Mike. ‘We were all thoughtful about what we wanted to put out there. Last time, it was figuring out how to use all of our different arms. This time, we were like — Ok we have these arms, let’s use them.’ The band used the same producer, Jason Cupp, and recorded the album at the same studio (Arc Studios in Omaha, Nebraska) as its predecessor — yet they approached it in a markedly different way. There was a determination to let the songs breathe, to trust in ideas finding their own pace. The final result is a definite, and deliberate, stretching of the band.
As a result, LP3 is less obviously tethered to the band’s past than the second album. An immediate contrast between LP3 and its two predecessors is its cover. The two previous albums featured the exterior and interior of a residence in the band’s original hometown of Urbana, Illinois (now attracting fans for pilgrimages and photo opportunities), by the photographer Chris Strong. But American Football knew that LP3 was an outside record. Instead of the familiar house, this time the cover photo (again by Strong) features open, rolling fields on Urbana’s borders. It is a sign of the album’s magnitude in sound, and of the band’s boldness in breaking away from home comforts.
American Football also joked that LP3‘s genre was ‘post-house,’ because of this very conscious visual break. But, in a strange way, there are links in LP3 with an actual post-house genre: shoegaze. The more exploratory members of the original British shoegaze scene were inspired by the dreamtime and circularity of house music (ambient house in particular), cherishing its sonic possibilities. That spirit drips into LP3, most obviously on ‘I Can’t Feel You,’ a collaboration with Rachel Goswell of Slowdive.
The album also features Hayley Williams from Paramore on the album’s catchiest moment, ‘Uncomfortably Numb,’ and Elizabeth Powell, of the Québécoise act Land Of Talk. Mike wrote lyrics in French especially for her.
LP3 is contemplative, rich, expressive, yet with a queasy undercurrent. It is heavy with expectancy, revealing its ideas slowly, eliciting the hidden stories people carry around with them. ‘I feel like my lyric writing has changed a lot over the years,’ says Mike. ‘The goal is to be conversational, maybe to state something giant and heavy, but in a very plain way. But, definitely in this record, I keep things a little more vague.’ As on the first album, the lyrics on LP3 may seem confessional and concentrated, but the more you scrutinize them, the further their meaning slinks away. Or, as Mike tellingly sings on ‘I Can’t Feel You”: I’m fluent in subtlety.
‘Somewhere along the way we moved from being a reunion band to just being a band,’ says Steve Holmes. American Football is now a bona fide ongoing focus, and they are making some of the best music of their lives. American Football (LP3) stands with two other rare reunion successes — Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine’s mbv — as a fine example of how a band refinding one another can augment, rather than taint, their legacy.
‘I think that there are those albums, or the music that you heard when you were younger, and they imprint on you,’ says Nate. ‘And no matter where you go, or what you do they’re always there.’ He is talking of Steve Reich — an early and ongoing influence on American Football — but he might as well be reflecting what is said of his own band, and the ardent following they inspire. American Football stands as an enduring symbol of elusive emotional landscapes, where introspection can be as dramatic as confrontation.
Listen: http://www.americanfootballmusic.com/
Advertisement

Where is it happening?

District Music Hall, 71 Wall St, Norwalk, CT 06850-3411, United States,Norwalk, Connecticut

Event Location & Nearby Stays:

District Music Hall

Host or Publisher District Music Hall

It's more fun with friends. Share with friends

Discover More Events in Norwalk

Virtual ALGO 7
Sat Feb 08 2025 at 12:00 pm Virtual ALGO 7

1 Belden Avenue, Norwalk, CT, United States, Connecticut 06850

Lez Zeppelin Perform Physical Graffiti & More!
Sat Feb 08 2025 at 08:00 pm Lez Zeppelin Perform Physical Graffiti & More!

District Music Hall

ENTERTAINMENT PERFORMANCES
Lauren Mayberry
Sat Feb 15 2025 at 08:00 pm Lauren Mayberry

District Music Hall

Lauren Mayberry: Vicious Creature Tour
Sat Feb 15 2025 at 08:00 pm Lauren Mayberry: Vicious Creature Tour

District Music Hall

MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
American Football
Sat Oct 19 2024 American Football

Wall Street Theater

SPORTS FOOTBALL
The New England Golfer: Optimize Your Winter Season
Sat Nov 23 2024 at 10:00 am The New England Golfer: Optimize Your Winter Season

Performance Optimal Health

SPORTS
Dice Tournament
Wed Dec 04 2024 at 06:00 pm Dice Tournament

1 Cove Avenue, Norwalk, CT

SPORTS TOURNAMENTS
2024 Norwalk Celebrity Breakfast Featuring Ron Darling
Fri Dec 06 2024 at 07:00 am 2024 Norwalk Celebrity Breakfast Featuring Ron Darling

Shorehaven Golf Club

NONPROFIT CHARITIES
NHRL 2024 Season: $1m World Championships @ Norwalk
Sat Dec 07 2024 at 09:00 am NHRL 2024 Season: $1m World Championships @ Norwalk

House of Havoc

SPORTS KIDS
Mario Sperry Seminar
Sat Dec 07 2024 at 11:30 am Mario Sperry Seminar

Gracie Sports USA Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

WORKSHOPS SPORTS
Holiday Extravaganza & Marketplace
Sat Dec 07 2024 at 04:00 pm Holiday Extravaganza & Marketplace

50 Washington St, Norwalk, CT 06854-2710, United States

HOLIDAY KIDS
NFL SUNDAY FUNDAY WEEK 14- Alvarium
Sun Dec 08 2024 at 11:30 am NFL SUNDAY FUNDAY WEEK 14- Alvarium

16 River St, Norwalk, CT

BRUNCH SPORTS
Jingle Bell 5K Run - at Calf Pasture Beach
Sat Dec 14 2024 at 09:00 am Jingle Bell 5K Run - at Calf Pasture Beach

Calf Pasture Beach

MARATHONS SPORTS
NFL SUNDAY FUNDAY WEEK 15- NEBCO
Sun Dec 15 2024 at 11:30 am NFL SUNDAY FUNDAY WEEK 15- NEBCO

16 River St, Norwalk, CT

BRUNCH SPORTS
314 Water Pong
Thu Jan 09 2025 at 07:00 pm 314 Water Pong

314 Beer Garden

SPORTS WORKSHOPS
American Football at District Music Hall
Fri Jan 31 2025 at 08:00 pm American Football at District Music Hall

District Music Hall

SPORTS FOOTBALL
American Football at District Music Hall
Fri Jan 31 2025 at 08:00 pm American Football at District Music Hall

District Music Hall

SPORTS FOOTBALL
American Football at District Music Hall (Norwalk)
Fri Jan 31 2025 at 08:00 pm American Football at District Music Hall (Norwalk)

District Music Hall

SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT

What's Happening Next in Norwalk?

Discover Norwalk Events