Photos By Nina Corcoran
Four years ago, I moved to Boston. I remember walking down Prospect Street in Cambridge, exploring Central Square, when I looked up at one of the green street signs and smiled. There, nailed to the top of its posts and a little beat up from the weather, was Bishop Allen Drive. I scrolled through my iPod to play The Broken String and continued walking, completely unaware that the very street I was walking on was where the Brooklyn indie rock group got their name.
Most known for their very twee 2007 album and of-the-moment Brooklyn-style rock, Bishop Allen graced the 2000s with three albums and an ambitious 12 EP project, releasing one for each month in 2006. They appeared in the 2008 indie rom-com Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, dropped their fourth album Grrr… the following year, and then presumably vanished. There was no goodbye, no final tour, and no more small club jumping to the punchy words of “The Monitor.” Bishop Allen had, for all intents and purposes, vanished — until 2014.
The five-piece took the Middle East’s stage downstairs with a bubbly grace to tour in support of their excellent return, this year’s Lights Out. Founders Justin Rice and Christian Rudder were more than excited to be back; they were enthused. The Harvard graduates noted they were playing around the corner from where the band got their name and were thrilled to be back in the city they grew up in. After Rice got married to bandmate Darbie Nowatka in 2009, they took time off before writing Lights Out‘s bright hits “Why I Had To Go” and the punchy “Skeleton Key.”
All selfish reasons for seeing them aside, the band’s set was worth noting if only for their eagerness to perform the new songs to a heart-eyed crowd. “Start Again” kicked off their set with a perky return to the spotlight and was followed by “Bread Crumbs” and “Rain,” but Rice made sure to include several deep cuts in their set, like 2003′s “Busted Heart.”
An assortment of fans loosened up as the set went on, dancing so wildly to “Click, Click, Click, Click” come the end that they mirrored the two girls on Lights Out‘s cover except that they clung to the early-2000s style, dawning colored skinny jeans and post-prep button-downs. Everyone had so much love to give, but no one recieved as much as keyboardist and vocalist Nowatka. After numerous proclamations of love shouted out for her between songs, Rice burst out laughing. “I like the Darby fan. I myself am a fan of Darby. Let’s cheer more for Darby,” he said with a grin, watching as she hid her face in her hands, blushing.
By the time they closed their set with “Middle Management,” Rice had drips of sweat balling up near his tear ducts and strands of hair swiping across his eyelashes. Who knew if he could see, nevertheless focus on his own guitar. The faster the song got (and the higher up he jumped on downbeats), though, it became clear vision wasn’t necessary for a set like this. Bishop Allen were ready to make their comeback, and any distractions that may have popped up were invited with open arms to join the party.
