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Armor For Sleep frontman Ben
Jorgenson is the perfect archetype of the irresistible
rock pixie. He’s got incessantly unthreatening and
huggable tiny-ness, impeccable style, and a gleaming smile
that makes girls giddily shutter and swoon and boys pale
with jealousy. The ubiquitous recognition of this is clear
as Jorgenson leads his band onto the stage at San
Francisco’s Warfield tonight and the crowd
erupts with shrieking excitement.
In return, the gleeful audience receives an energetic
dose of "The Truth About Heaven," a track
from the concept album What To Do When Your Dead
throughout which Jorgenson pours his heart out
to a love long lost. AFS have clearly realized that
this album—though their first of three—is
a favorite for fans; they play titles from What
To Do… during their nine song set
The impish leader speaks to the crowd with gratitude,
addresses the longtime SF fans, and essentially plays
the crowd for all he can before introducing “Smile
For The Camera,” stating proudly, “This
is the first song on our new album.” The dedicated
fan base sings along like they’ve heard the track
a hundred times, though Smile For Them—the
band’s Sire Records major label debut—isn’t
yet released.
Also from Smile For Them, the boys unleash
“Hold The Door,” which is already receiving
positive bloggery, and “Williamsburg,” for
which a video was recently wrapped.
While Jorgenson captivates, the rest of the band doesn’t
throw a whole lot of physical energy into their performance
tonight. If there is a downfall tonight, that is it.
But not all bands jump and strut. If the music wholly
envelopes the audience, that can be satisfying unto
itself. Thus, performing so much material from What
To Do…is the saving grace; virtually every
track on the album is a sing-along, and that fact successfully
carries tonight’s gig right up to the closer,
“Car Underwater.”
Smile For Them will
be available October 25, 2007
www.armorforsleep.com
www.myspace.com/armorforsleep
Words: Jef Hoskins
Photos: Miguel Arias
October 10, 2007
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