Band of Horses Fulfill Dream of Playing L.A.'s Roxy

Band of Horses, who just released their third studio album, 'Infinite Arms,' last week, were living out a pseudo-childhood dream playing Los Angeles' Roxy on Tuesday night. "I grew up watching the Guns N' Roses concert on MTV," frontman Ben Bridwell told the crowd of the iconic 1986 concert film taped at the venue. Billed as "An Evening With Band of Horses," there was one thing the two concerts had in common -- while an intimate backdrop, the Roxy was, quite possibly, too small to host the mass of people packed before them.

The group is fresh off a month-long tour opening for Pearl Jam, a gig that saw Band of Horses perform a 10-song set each night in the allotted 45 minutes each night. Fittingly, BOH's Roxy show doubled that length. Of the 20 songs sampled, five were off the new album, with 'Northwest Apartment,' 'Laredo' and 'Factory' among them. While these went without any problems, Bridwell completely forgot the lyrics midway through the first song of the encore and had to plead for the audience's help. Calling it "sweet redemption," the band flawlessly picked it up again during the follow-up, 'The General Specific.'

Despite the flub, Bridwell and company delivered a high-energy set. Earlier songs like 'The Great Salt Lake,' 'Monsters' and 'Is There a Ghost' were headbangers that even had the frontman shaking his head to reach his token high notes. Playing in such a small, enveloped venue helped deliver the band's reverb-drenched guitars and vocals with the similar sound of their studio albums, something that gets lost when you see Band of Horses outdoors. While the band risks having their songs sounding very similar to another because of this, the evening displayed some standouts like the slow 'Infinite Arms' burner 'Older,' written by keyboardist Ryan Monroe.

Although many would expect Band of Horse to put their popular track 'The Funeral' somewhere on a pedestal like the end of the set or the encore, the song was sandwiched nonchalantly mid-set between the sweet lyrics of 'No One's Gonna Love You' and twangy 'Ode to LRC.' Whether or not they were trying to be subtle, it was enough to prove that Band of Horses have many great songs in their alt-rock arsenal.