The Walkmen at Tomorrow Never Knows

The Walkmen are not touring at the moment, so they made this gig count. The band packed thirty songs into two sets, drawing heavily from its debut, Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone, which is finally seeing release on vinyl to celebrate its (belated) tenth anniversary.

That album title is even funnier now that the Walkmen are finally getting their due respect. The Metro was stuffed to capacity.

I've been arguing this is America's best band for years. The six new songs played at this Tomorrow Never Knows festival gig backed up that bold claim. Nobody makes the old sound so fresh. There's a Buddy Holly bounce and a deeper doo-wop to the new stuff, like the killer nickel-jukebox soul of "I'm Not Your Heartbreaker," which closed the evening. A seventh record, produced by Phil Ek, should be out sooner than later.

Other new tunes included "Love You Love," "Dreamboat," "Love Is Luck," "Bottled Sand" and a tearjerker that opened the set with the spotlight on lone frontman Hamilton Leithauser. By the end of the first act, a horn section was boozily beefing up the mariachi-ish "Stranded" and "Louisiana."

Check out the setlist below and seek out "Heartbreaker" on YouTube stat.

New Song
They're Winning
Wake Up
Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone
Revenge Wears No Wristwatch
Hang On, Siobhan
The Blizzard of '96
We've Been Had
Love You Love
Dreamboat
Love Is Luck
Dónde Está La Playa
On the Water
In the New Year
Red Moon
Stranded
Canadian Girl
Louisiana
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Bottled Sand
Blue As Your Blood
All Hands and the Cook
Woe Is Me
French Vacation
The Rat
No Christmas While I'm Talking
I Lost You
138th Street
Postcards from Tiny Islands
Thinking of a Dream I Had
I'm Not Your Heartbreaker