The Wake

“We’re used to small and smoky,” said American Analog Set’s front man Andrew Kenny, two hours before he played at Dinkytown’s Varsity Theater on Oct. 22. “I’d like to personally thank the band who’s on stage at whatever crappy venue we’re actually supposed to be at right now.” For me, it was the disco ball, the air mattresses, the lipstick-and-cologne adorned Varsity Theater that perfectly complimented the seduction the band achieved that evening. It’s a step above the Bud Light-specializing excuse of a venue they worked their way up from over their ten-year life span.

Their show opened with “It’s All About Us,” the third track off their third full-length album, The Golden Band. The song’s recorded version is incredibly slow, featuring soft voice and even softer guitar, but Kenny managed to decelerate it even more for his live audience, keeping us eagerly anticipating the next chord change and whispered syllable. Although they’ve come a long way since this 1999 release, it seemed all too appropriate to open with material from The Golden Band. Kenny described that record and their recent release on the Arts and Crafts label, titled Set Free, as “the smartest records we’ve made. After The Golden Band, we knew that this is what our band does well … Set Free was an attempt to recreate that, right now. We did it for us.”

The song ended, and the audience slowly snapped out of the hypnotic spell Kenny managed to cast over everyone. The vibraphone player stood up (he sat cross-legged and attentive during the first song) and I sunk deeper into my velvet cushion. The full band played songs such as “Come Home Baby Julie, Come Home” and “Hard to Find” from 2003’s Promise of Love, during which Kenny switched to the vibes and showed what rhythm his hips possess. Next was a series of songs from Set Free, including “Immaculate Heart I,” “Cool Kids Keep” and “She’s Half.” Everyone in the audience looked to the person they were with and smiled in understanding, because this album will probably go down in history.

“We worked like the dickens on it. We always had to have one more, one more, one more until…it took a year,” says Amanset. Written despite long distance (Kenny in New York City, Craig in Chicago and the rest in Austin) and recorded in homemade studios, Set Free launched Amanset’s “last tour ever in support of an album … We still like making music together but we’ve all got other projects that we’d like to concentrate on for a while.” So, to clarify, they’re not breaking up—you’ll just never see them again.

With no future tours looming in the distance, Kenny hopes to find time to work with other Arts and Crafts bands, such as Apostle of Hustle or Feist. “Arts and Crafts is the center of a really important music scene … it’s a family,” Kenny explained. It’s evident that the newcomers, having only signed with the label this year, are eager to work with their label-mates.

Knowing that this was the last time I would ever get a glimpse at American Analog Set was distressing. Although we may never see them again, they aren’t going anywhere. Kenny said about his fans, “it’s the cool kids that like us…the kids that dig,” and added to that, later at the show during track four of Set Free, “the cooler kids will live forever.”