I would call Bishop Allen a band of workaholics, but that would suggest negative connotations. Really, what 2006 was to the Brooklyn band is rivaled by very few. Twelve EPs in a year, one for every month. There are few other artists who have even dared embark on a journey of epic recording proportions such as this. January started with a bulging, thumping “Corazon,” and already your heart had to be soaring. The next eleven months went by without so much as even a crack in the quality. From July’s “Click Click Click Click” to November’s “Tea for Two,” picking a favorite month is impossibly trivial. Some artists are just talented enough to achieve a sustained period of amazing work, which is just what 2006 was for Bishop Allen. It’s a talent that transformed into the stage as well.

They brought their traveling six-pack of performers to the Vaudeville Mews in Des Moines equipped with a year’s worth of songs to pick from, as well as their aptly named LP Charm School. Justin Rice and company have a unique quality to charm the pants off of you. All their work to date has such a heart-warming quality to it that even the most cold-hearted bastard can’t help but thaw out. Their set, as with the climate, was warming up. The last speckles of snow were disappearing from roadside plow piles, and this was the first night that the temperature in the capital city was comfortable enough to shed that dragging heavy coat. February’s dreariness had hit the wayside, and if anyone knows how to supplement that first month’s refreshing breath of spring, it’s Bishop Allen.

If these songs don’t make you smile, there’s some icy water flowing through those veins of yours. Take the feel-good rescue tale of “Corazon” which started this whole aforementioned 12 EP flourish. It is about an abandoned piano that the band befriended and adopted, and nursed back to musical life. It is songs and stories like that that can melt the last of the snow piles in milliseconds. Add the gentle mandolin and one-man horn section around the charismatic lead man Rice, and it’s charm overkill.

Rice, equipped with some pearly new sneakers was as impeccable as a front man could be. He made the cramped stage his own, using every inch of the few square feet at his disposal, stomping and skittering around like a more elegant Angus Young. When the climax presented itself, Rice leapt into the air streaming both sneakers like shooting stars before clashing them down to earth.

The crowd fed off the energy and provided backing vocals on every single song. Perhaps they had been warmed up by the peaking sun’s rays, or to give credit where it’s due, by the charm of Bishop Allen.

Bishop Allen Official Site
Dead Oceans