Hamilton Leithauser
Recommended
This event is in the past
Fri., Jan. 20, 9:30 p.m. 2017
Star Theater
Old Town-Chinatown (Portland)
$20
Hamilton Leithauser’s new LP, I Had a Dream You Were Mine, is a study in how one songwriter from an already established outfit can not only flourish within his own alternate reality, but also produce music that is possibly more daring and artistic. As frontman for indie rock darlings the Walkmen, Hamilton canted confident odes over a foundation of propulsive guitars that produced arena-worthy sing-alongs and garage-pop overtures, a musical machine firing on all cylinders. When left to his own devices, an ambitiously tasteful collaboration with Vampire Weekend’s multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij emerges in which Leithauser’s soulful rasp is given ample space to stretch and soothe over beautifully sparse instrumentation. This allows his gifted storytelling to be all the more sentimental, resulting in pastiches that conjure images of a stylishly melancholic Rod Stewart waiting out an icy rainstorm in a dark Parisian bar. CHRIS SUTTON