Mason Proper @ Bowery Ballroom (11/11/08)

In recent years the idea of playing full, classic albums has gone from a sweet idea to a fully realized and usually pretty amazing experience. Bands as diverse as Mission of Burma, GZA, Sonic Youth, and Tortoise have done the full album thing and it's seems to be getting more and more common as the propensity towards indie music grows. Last night Mason Proper added their name to the list of bands doing this, albeit with a brand new album and not a classic. Opening for Cloud Cult at Bowery Ballroom, the Michigan based quintet played their brand new album, Olly Oxen Free, from front to back for a crowd that was as solid as you can get for an opening act (I'd say 75-80% full). Full of killer guitar riffs, sharp and quick lyrics, and some fantastic rhythms, Olly Oxen Free has definitely been one of my top albums of the year thus far but seeing it live definitely adds to the intensity of the record. The band members seem to really get off on playing the upbeat, faster paced parts of the record, dancing about and thrashing around as they continue to play on. Granted, part of the album is a bit more subdued and they certainly played those tunes that way, but songs like the lead single "Lock and Key" were absolute foot stompers. Some of the crowd seemed really into it, tapping along with the band and nodding their heads in agreement, though for the most part it was your standard stand there do nothing New York crowd. Still the band put on a pretty solid show and definitely sold the record to me even more so then it already was.