Live Music: Cursive @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, 3/9/09

Appearances, as they say, can be deceiving. Looking at Cursive frontman Tim Kasher’s slim stature on stage at the Music Hall of Williamsburg last Monday night, one unfamiliar with his songwriting might have never guessed the hostilities that lurk within.

Shaking his head and his fist, Kasher pointed his rage at lovers, religion and critics, pulling out a career spanning set list with a heavy emphasis on recent material. Ugly Organ, Happy Hollow and last week’s newly released Mama, I’m Swollen consumed most of the set.

The crowd was tame but appreciative, and so was the band. Cursive can be known for Kasher’s booze-besotted outbursts, but he was quiet and polite in-between songs. Though he claimed, at one point that, “I have a threshold of about 15 songs and then I get really bored,” they chugged through a 13-song set and six-song encore with not so much as a hiccup.

Brand new jams “From the Hips,” “Mama, I’m Satan” and “I Couldn’t Love You” fit in comfortably between fan favorites like “Some Red-Handed Slight of Hand” and “The Casualty,” though it’ll take some time before the new tunes rile fans up as much as the older ones.

Cursive, “From the Hips” (download)

Supporting Kasher were founding bassist Matt Maginn and long-time guitarist Ted Stevens, who thrashed around with ease, as well as a yet to be identified keyboardist and trumpeter. But it appears that the most recent addition, drummer Cornbread Compton — who replaced founding drummer Clint Schnase, who left in ’07 — was absent at both the Music Hall of Williamsburg show, as well as the show at Bowery Ballroom the following night, and we’re not the only ones to notice. If anyone can confirm or deny, please do. (Drummers, sheesh!)

For more pictures, go here.

SETLIST
Butcher the Song
Dorothy at 40
Mama, I’m Satan
The Great Decay
Driftwood: A Fairy Tale
The Casualty
Let Me Up
Bad Sects
A Career in Transcendence
I Couldn’t Love You
Some Red-Handed Slight of Hand
Rise Up! Rise Up!
From The Hips
Encore: Art is Hard
Big Bang
The Game of Who Needs Who the Worst
What Have I Done
Gentleman Caller
The Martyr

Check out a video of Cursive’s performance of “Gentleman Caller” from this show:
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