{"id":888,"date":"2010-06-23T14:09:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-23T14:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=888"},"modified":"2026-06-27T14:10:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T14:10:29","slug":"broken-bells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=888","title":{"rendered":"Broken Bells"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

June 2010, 40 Watt, Athens, Ga.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There was plenty of promise, I can tell you this much. When it was announced Broken Bells was coming to Athens \u2014 marking the triumphant return of Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse, who not only became Danger Mouse in Athens, but it was at the Georgia Theatre where he met Cee-Lo for the first time) \u2014 people hurried to get tickets. Never mind the supergroup also featured James Mercer of The Shins \u2014 thoughts of 40 Watt history sprang into many people\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n

You never know what you get with these side projects, especially in the live show. Jack White is never as lively with the Raconteurs as he is with the White Stripes, but then again the Raconteurs isn\u2019t all about him. And maybe that\u2019s the way with Broken Bells, with neither James or Danger trying to steal any thunder away from the other. Of course, anyone who has seen the Shins knows James isn\u2019t much of a spotlight hog in the first place.<\/p>\n

Sporting an album packed with excellent tracks, Broken Bells came to Athens and played a technically perfect show. The sound was right on, the breaks and flourishes were on cue \u2014 it sounded just great. The band played the album through and through, adding a pair of covers (\u201cYou Really Got a Hold on Me\u201d by The Miracles and \u201cCrimson and Clover\u201d by Tommy James and the Shondells) and a song Danger and James wrote with the late Mark Linklous called \u201cInsane Lullaby\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was a tight set \u2014 it just wasn\u2019t lively.<\/p>\n

Some shows are all about the music, some about the performance, and I understand that. But this show was like watching a pre-recorded in studio performance. Danger Mouse would move from drums, to keys, to guitar \u2014 eliciting a cheer from the crowd, but little if anything from the man himself. Mercer chatted briefly if ever between songs \u2014 though he did remark about the band\u2019s names all over the backstage rooms of the 40 Watt. American Cheeseburger, an Athens band, brought a chuckle. \u201cIs there really a band called American Cheeseburger? That\u2019s great,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

I got the sense the band still wasn\u2019t as comfortable playing the songs as they would like. Following \u201cThe High Road,\u201d perhaps the band\u2019s best-known song, Mercer gave a look to Danger and he winked back. \u201cThat\u2019s the best we ever played that,\u201d Mercer said. \u201cIt\u2019s all because of you.\u201d A loud cheer erupted.<\/p>\n

The crowd was invested into whatever the band did. And it was a good crowd, no nasty invaders or ill-informed louts \u2014 and they loved every minute of the show. But the band was going through the motions. The Morning Benders, the band opening for Broken Bells, played with more fervor and made an effort to connect to the audience. Of course it\u2019s in their best interest to do that while Broken Bells already had the crowd.<\/p>\n

I was happy to see Broken Bells, I would have been remiss had I not. But I can\u2019t say I\u2019d rush to see them again as much as I love the music they\u2019re making.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 2010, 40 Watt, Athens, Ga. There was plenty of promise, I can tell you this much. When it was announced Broken Bells was coming to Athens \u2014 marking the triumphant return of Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse, who not only became Danger Mouse in Athens, but it was at the Georgia Theatre where he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[45,131],"class_list":["post-888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerts","tag-40-watt","tag-broken-bells"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":889,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions\/889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}