Joan of Arc, Make Believe & Love of Everything

After a series of shortcuts, which was meant to quicken our drive down from Chico, we arrived for the show at Sacramento’s Capitol Garage, late as usual. Synthesis photographer Ms. Cortez and I hurriedly scrambled through the door to find Make Believe already rocking on stage. Although I had entered the Capitol Garage less than a minute ago, I found myself instantly awestruck with this band — not because of the singer’s swaying cadence while awkwardly fidgeting with the microphone stand; the guitarist’s complex progressions up and down the neck of his axe; nor the bassist’s boomingly intricate rhythms — but because the drummer was perfectly playing keyboards and drums at the same time! Set up over the bass drum of his kit was a Fender Rhodes electric piano, and while continuing to beat the hell out of his drums with his feet and left hand, he would smash out a melody or a few chords with his right hand (drum stick still in hand!). After playing for about half-an-hour longer, Make Believe ended their set with the hardest rocking song of the night, and the lead singer concluded by thanking everyone and asking them to “stick around because Joan of Arc is up next.”
Having missed Love of Everything, I found out during the break that Make Believe was essentially the same band, except that Love of Everything had all adorned beanies on their heads and switched up their instruments (i.e., singer playing guitar and keyboards and bassist playing guitar and singing). After a nice long break, the four members of Make Believe took to the stage again, joined by two additional musicians to comprise the final incarnation of the night: Joan of Arc. The lead singer of Joan of Arc and Make Believe, Tim Kinsella (who is also the frontman for The Owls), thanked everyone for coming out and then broke into song.
There are a few things about Joan of Arc that make them really stand apart from most rock bands: the first is instruments — lots of them. The stage was filled with drums, amps, various percussion instruments, a xylophone, multiple keyboards, an organ, effects pedals, guitars, whistles, bells — you name it. The second is that they are constantly playing musical chairs, flawlessly switching around who is playing what instrument from song to song. The third thing that you would probably notice (unless you were dead) is that Joan of Arc totally rocks! If you go and see Joan of Arc play live you will leave amazed — it’s that simple. The band’s ability to go from almost ambient to extreme driving rhythms at the drop of a hat with all of them totally synced up (not to mention the energy they exude and Tim Kinsella’s playful stage presence) is astonishing to watch. At one point during the show Kinsella even started crawling around the stage on all fours, humorously snatching anything left too close to the low stage (including a couple of purses, one of which belonging to our photographer).
After Joan of Arc’s epic performance, I took a few deep breaths, retrieved Ms. Cortez’s purse from the stage and headed home — no shortcuts this time.
– John Patrick
– Photos by Lania Cortez

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