The last couple of years have been a cornucopia of riches for fans of bands who haven’t toured in ages and who have chosen to reunite. And there are even those rare opportunities, like in the case of The Folk Implosion, of a group that not only got back together, wrote a new album together, but are in the middle of their first tour in 26 years.
After an EP in 2022 and a retrospective compilation of songs from the KIDS Soundtrack last year, The Folk Implosion seems to be back with the excellent Walk Thru Me, leaving off where 1999’s One Part Lullaby ended. Fortunately many of those songs were woven into the expansive set at The Metro Gallery Monday night.
Having themselves as their own openers, John Davis and Lou Barlow did shortened opening sets. While Davis performed a couple of songs from his most recent LP, Love in the Time of Capital, Barlow performed the song “Pearl.” “I wrote that song – in the middle 2000’s,” he told the crowd. “I was in a really bad spot and I was like maybe I should pretend I’m a songwriter. So I made up a song and it’s gonna be about a woman named Pearl. But it’s not gonna be about me. I wrote the song and I listened back and found that it was exactly about me.”
When the two songwriters got together on-stage, you could tell there was an immediate connection. It was both strong musically and, like any good comedy partnership, utterly hilarious in that way maybe the Smother Brothers were. For a duo that hasn’t toured in over 25 years, it was clear they were having fun.
They kicked things off with several songs from their first album, Take a Look Inside, with “Start Again.” At times Lou Barlow hammed it up on the drums – joking at one point that the bass player for Blur once said Lou Barlow couldn’t play drums only to have Damon Albarn, the band’s singer, tell the press he quite liked the song.
In that self-effacing way, Lou Barlow joked, “Somehow I get worse every night.” But as the night rolled on, he had to admit this was a pretty fun performance. “I think we stumbled onto something here in Baltimore,” Lou later joked.
Songs like “Checking in” from 1997’s Dare to Be Surprised and, more recently, “Walk Thru Me” from the new album had a funky pre-recorded beat while Lou’s slinky bass and John rhythmic guitar patterns made for a hypnotic grooves.
One of the things I really appreciate is when artists take a moment to tell a bit out how these songs are created. A great example is “My Little Lamb” as John Davis described how these songs came about with the two of them recording in Barlow’s house in an uninsulated attic and then going back to the music they recorded to rework or finish the song.
Watch the official video for “Little Lamb” by The Folk Implosion on YouTube:
Some of the funniest moments came when Lou and John chatted up with the crowd about Baltimore and, in particular, a story from Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner which started a whole riff on “sweatpants money.”
“We have one cover for you this evening,” John started. “The worst yet,” Lou followed up before the two played “Natural One” from the KIDS Soundtrack.
But before they wrapped up their set, The Folk Implosion played “Free to Go” and “Myritual” from One Part Lullaby before fittingly ending with a song that really started their reunion and ultimately new album, “Crepuscular.”
Although The Folk Implosion’s tour run was a relatively short one, I do really hope they come back soon. The Folk Implosion wrap up their East Coast tour on July 27th in Durham, NC before heading to the Midwest.
