The Acorn and Communipaw @ Maxwell's 7-13-10 (photos)

Acorn

The Acorn are surprising in a different way: rather than pull strings slowly from your heart, they tap them like fingers across a piano, making your feet then tap a steady beat against the filthy hardwood floor. The Canadian sweethearts are bright enough to make you smile to yourself in a crowd, and soulful enough to make you bite your lips, holding back the urge to sing along, even if you don’t know the words. 

Communipaw

Communipaw is the kind of band that comes up on shuffle when you’re walking home after a long, shitty day at work. The sunlight’s fading on the west horizon, and night is crawling slow and violet up the sky. The music matches the ache in your calves--every crash of guitar feels like another stretch, longing to end up somewhere familiar. Their kind of folk is bittersweet--it draws things out of your memory that you’ve forgotten, or recalls the things that you desperately wanted to forget. When I saw the New Brunswick band at Maxwell’s on July 13th, I was caught off-guard. Bond’s voice is both melancholy and defiant, and their lyrics have heart, the kind that your tired head would be singing if your thoughts were set to music. 

Both of these bands are great to see live, in their own different ways, but the one thing they have in common is the ability to influence the small beating bundle beneath your ribs.

--by Zandra Ruiz

More photos below. 

The Acorn

Communipaw