Nada Surf
Words: Scott Harrell
Photo: Scott Harrell

Appeared:
October 26, 2007
The State Theatre, St. Petersburg

Once upon a time, a little alt-rock band from NYC called Nada Surf had one big hit with a mediocre Weezer-Era tune called “Popular.”

Then they went away. And got really, really good at crafting the sort of catchy, earbud-friendly indie-rock that lives below the trend radar, in thirtyish folks' iPods and mid-sized venues like St. Pete's State Theatre. Brief brush with mainstream fame notwithstanding, the trio has always been about the music first, an aesthetic that becomes more apparent with each Nada Surf release.

It was on conspicuous display at last month's Bay area appearance, as well. Taking a stage adorned simply with a backline of medium-sized concave mirrors, the group launched into the white-kid groove of “Hi-Speed Soul,” from 2002's Let Go. Singer/guitarist Matt Caws was more interested in getting into the tune, and getting it right, than showboating for the surprisingly large crowd, leaving bassist Daniel Lorca to handle most of the visual entertainment via dreadlock-tossing headbanging, quirky dance moves and a big, big smile. A few earnest, friendly between-song comments from Caws (who also managed to do a little awkward dancing of his own) aside, it was a format that held for the length of the 25-song show.

Above all, it's Caws' mellifluous voice that holds the Nada catalog together. Upbeat, nearly pop-punk tunes like “Happy Kid,” “Always Love” and “Imaginary Friends” blended seamlessly with more moody and often far more complex mid-tempo fare such as fan favorites “Inside of Love” and “Killian's Red” throughout the course of a set that leaned at least as heavily on Let Go as it did the band's most recent full-length, '05's The Weight Is A Gift; Caws' solo performance of the former's spare “Blizzard of '77,” in fact, may have elicited the loudest singalong of the night. Only one track, “Stalemate,” made it from the band's more “Popular” days (surprisingly, nobody in the crowd hollered for that never-to-be-played-again anachronism), while a couple of brand new songs implied a more streamlined approach to the next album.

The whole thing was more about listening than watching. Nada Surf shared their music, and everybody ate every perfectly executed tune up, creating a communal vibe that held through the end of the encore, when the entire audience screamed the “fuck it, I'm gonna have a party” refrain from “Blankest Year.” Well, almost everybody; I ran into a few friends at the Emerald afterward who'd left the gig early out of boredom. Guess they were doing more watching than listening.