Tally Hall live in Denver

Last Sunday night, I was in Denver and went to go see Tally Hall at a club in Englewood, CO. I recently discovered this band which formed a few years ago at the University of Michigan. Their debut album, Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum released last year, is a great Power Pop treat. They have the obvious influences (Beatles, Cheap Trick, Fountains of Wayne, ELO), but their music is much deeper than that. There is as much Queen, XTC, Jellyfish, Beck, Beastie Boys and even Harry Belafonte on the album. I was most curious how they would pull off the vocals on their record which at times are very daring. I have to say that I was very impressed.

They come out dressed in white dress shirts, black dress pants and a variety of colored ties. As soon as they came out on stage, they tore into a 10 minute, spot on version of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird". It is almost as if they wanted to avoid the inevitable stereotype encore request and they just got it out of the way at the front. Being that it was completely different than their normal material and it was so perfectly executed, it really spoke for how talented this band really is. After they finished that, they started playing the highlights from their new album. Their most popular songs were great ("Good Day", "Banana Man", "Two Wuv") but some of the less recognizable songs really stood out, as well. I particularly liked the very melodic "Greener" and "Welcome to Tally Hall" that was sung by a group of guys that beat the band in a bowling match earlier in the day. Tally Hall - where Rock Star dreams come true. They wrapped up the whole show with an uptempo version of Manfred Mann's "Blinded By the Light". This song was originally written and later performed by Bruce Springsteen, but Tally Hall's version was more M.M. than B.S. Great show. You should check them out if you get the chance.

Here is the setlist:

Freebird (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover)
The Bidding
Greener
Taken for a Ride
Welcome to Tally Hall (featuring the winning bowlers)
Two Wuv
Good Day
Just Apathy
Spring and a Storm
Banana Man
Misery Fell
Ruler of Everything

Turn the Lights Off
Blinded by the Light (Manfred Mann cover)


Here are a couple of videos by the band.

"Good Day"

"Banana Man"