The members of Tophouse traveled from Montana to Music City to make their life in music. On “Practice,” the now-Nashville band’s most recent EP, Tophouse travels a wide emotional and creative range to make their music sound exactly as large as life. All while keeping the sonic shape of a string band.
Columbia audiences can journey alongside Tophouse when the band plays an edition of the Central Bank Downtown Live! concert series later this month in Rose Park.
“Meteor” opens the set with quite natural atmospherics — the reverb of an electric guitar, the wild call of nearby strings — before singer Joseph Larson opines over acoustic strumming about what the heart wants, what it can have, and what splits the difference. To fall in love is to fall like the titular body, the song asserts.
Tophouse
As the song goes on, electric guitar urgently cuts the mix, lending “Meteor” a Lord Huron-esque quality.
Throughout “Practice,” that Big Sky sort of sound often intersects with the realistic mystic vibes put forth by forerunners such as Trampled by Turtles; the latter feel prominently comes forth on “I Don’t Wanna Move On,” with its rambling guitar strings and harmony-soaked romanticism. Dramatic — almost cinematic — string figures heighten an impending sense of regret and distinguishes the song from its influences.
Elsewhere through the EP, “Waste” assumes the form of a slow country blues with an emotional and lyrical swell; “Run” comes across nervier yet also more of its modern moment with nimble strings and echoing handclaps — the track is both more obscured and more immediate than its peers.
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Another clear highlight, “Better Than This” boasts a well-rounded, often beautiful arrangement with groovy bass, steadying piano and atmosphere conveyed through both other instruments and wordless, yearning backing vocals.
“Falling” closes the set on a true acoustic ballad; melodramatic in its way, but also effective in the same measure.
To hear Tophouse play is to hear the miles that stick to a song or a player as they travel the country and even wider interior spaces. The journey, throughout “Practice” and other Tophouse recordings, is worth its eventual destination — and vice-versa.
Tophouse plays Rose Park with Low Gap at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 22. For tickets and more information, visit https://rosemusichall.com/event/tophouse-at-rose-park-central-bank-downtown-live/.
Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at [email protected]. He’s on Twitter/X @aarikdanielsen.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Tophouse is coming to Columbia for Rose Park concert
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