Recap The Walkmen at the Barrymore Theatre

The Walkmen’s recently released Lisbon has all the makings of a career-defining album; it’s been piled in plaudits since its September release, garnishing the nearly decade-old band its most positive press yet. Even The Walkmen seem to understand that Lisbon is a game changer; after years on the fringes, the band is on mid-major label Fat Possum, and Lisbon is poised to break through in a way the band’s early-’00s albums didn’t. This is why the band’s set at the Barrymore Theatre on Thursday night was so heavy on Lisbon. Now that the crowds are coming back and in bigger numbers, The Walkmen aren’t going to be spending a lot of time playing deep cuts from 2006’s middling A Hundred Miles Off.

Starting with Lisbon in sequence, The Walkmen launched into “Juveniles” not long after taking the stage, then segued into the stellar anthem “Angela Surf City.” From there, the band played nearly the entire album, replicating the minimalist surf rock of tracks like “Woe Is Me” and “Blue As Your Blood” and the tender balladry of “While I Shovel The Snow.” The big surprise came in just how heavy The Walkmen could sound, as drummer Matt Barrick beat his rims and cymbals like they owed him back pay, while guitarist Paul Maroon’s measured, hollow body riffs provided a melodic and dusty counterpoint to frontman Hamilton Leithauser’s scraggly croon.

The Walkmen had to be loud to compete with openers Japandroids, who revved up their ringing rock tunes to a near nuclear meltdown. Running through tracks from Post-Nothing—including a super-crunchy version of “Heart Sweats”—and a handful of new ones, Japandroids were a revelation, with guitarist Brian King and drummer David Prowse staging the closest thing to a bromance ever put on a musical stage. Their hollering into each other’s faces about young love gone awry and youth misspent with limitless exuberance must make Japandroids a hard act to follow every night on this tour.

For the rare parts of their show that weren’t Lisbon, The Walkmen stuck to the relatively shallow part of their catalog’s deep end, sticking to well-known fare like Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone’s “We’ve Been Had,” and You & Me’s “On The Water,” showcasing Leithauser’s stout whistling skills. The biggest thrill of the night came during a particularly mammoth take of You & Me’s “In The New Year,” a song that had the crowd, and Leithauser, pogo-ing gently to the track’s jaunty chorus. Longtime fans might have been bummed that The Walkmen didn’t play their best-known song—“The Rat”—but they could leave the Barrymore knowing The Walkmen are a band that is just hitting its stride. There’s no need to rely on the old hits with The Walkmen; the band is still making vital music.