Couch at Royale, 11/10/23
It is not often that you get to see not one but two hometown acts on the same bill, but such was the case at the Royale on Friday, November 10, where both the headliner, Couch, and opener, Alisa Amador, were from Boston. Amador, who won the 2022 NPR Tiny Desk Concert, performed songs in English and in Spanish and talked about growing up Latina in Boston. The range of her music, from deliberate and introspective to funky and energetic, was a great precursor to Couch’s bright pop funk.
As the crowd excitedly awaited the band to take the umbrella-adorned stage, lights flashed and thunder clapped, simulating a sunshower—the title of Couch’s most recent EP. Each member assumed their position on the stage, and then the storm ceased, and Couch came alive. They everyone dancing, beginning with songs such as “Saturday,” “I’m Leavin’ (The Na-Na Song),” and “L.A.” The band was also in motion, moving joyfully about the stage. Lead vocalist Tema Siegel was especially expressive, at times falling to the ground, microphone—or tambourine—in hand.
On “Poems,” keyboards player Danny Silverston led the crowd in an ambitious three-part harmony. The show was tightly choreographed and each member of the band seemed to know exactly what to do, while retaining the improvisatory elements of the band’s jazz influences. As is Couch’s collaborative nature, the members took turns speaking to the crowd and taking solos. I particularly loved watching backup vocalist Ella Atkinson and the trumpet and alto saxophone duo of Jeffrey Pinsker-Smith and Eric Tarlin. Pinsker-Smith and Tarlin traded solos in “Conjunction Junction,” which is indeed a Schoolhouse Rock cover. Even if a band member was not playing their instrument at a particular moment, they were engaged, dancing and encouraging their bandmates. The energy was overwhelmingly joyous, creative, and, well, sunny.
Next, Siegel introduced a more introspective tune, “Autumn,” which is based on a poem that Siegel wrote several years after Couch released their first single, “Easy To Love.” “Autumn,” Siegel told the crowd, is about being in love. Siegel’s soaring vocals and Jeffrey Pinsker-Smith’s soulful trumpet solo beautifully balance Couch’s punchier tunes. Another softer track was “Let Me Hold You,” which Siegel beautifully described as a song about holding on to the good and the bad at the end of a relationship. This duality is the emotional center of Sunshower: the complexity of simultaneous sun and rain.
Couch was joined by Amador for a cover of Have You Ever Seen the Rain, which especially delighted the older fans in the audience. The final cover of the night, Justin Bieber’s Sorry, was also a hit. The band closed out the show with the Sunshower EP opening track, “(I Wanted) Summer With You.” “Easy to Love” was a perfect encore. Having heard the tune so many times before through my earbuds, it was incredible to experience the energy live.
The week after the show, I had the opportunity to speak on the phone with guitarist Zach Blankstein.
Congratulations on your new EP! You played at Boston Calling this past spring, what was that experience like for you?
Zach: When we play at home we’re fortunate enough to have family and people we grew up with come and see us, so it's really special to play in Boston purely for who comes to the shows. Also, Boston Calling is a festival that many of us went to to see bands that we really liked, and now we're a band that people are hopefully coming to see, or maybe people have never even heard of us, and then they just stumble upon [our set]. It's really exciting to get to play for that many people, let alone the big festival in our hometown and the excitement that comes with that.
I’m also from Massachusetts, so it’s nice to see local bands. The show last week was really great because there were not one but two local acts, which was pretty cool. What are your favorite parts about the music scene in Boston?
We take a lot of pride in being a Boston-based band. I think a lot of people assume we’re a Berklee band. That's a question we often get or an assumption that comes just from being a band in Boston that has a jazzy or funky leaning. People go, oh, you guys are a Berklee band. And we arent, we’re just from Boston. But I think what Berklee and other schools add to the area is a lot of young, really talented musicians who are excited to hang out and make music together. We've at times needed subs in Couch, and we've pulled from the Berklee community and found really talented, amazing people. Our background vocalist Ella Atkinson, who tours with us and has amazing folk singer-songwriter music of her own, is from Berklee. It's great to be able to pursue our career where we're from. There's a familiarity there, and it's comfortable to be around here for the time being. In addition, every year there's a new group of hungry musicians coming to Boston who are excited to add their flavor to the scene. Now that we've been [in Boston] for 3 or 4 years, it's been really exciting to meet and befriend and even at times collaborate with the amazing musicians that Berklee and New England Conservatory are bringing to the city each year.
I really liked the set and the lighting design of the show. The couch, obviously, but also the umbrellas and the whole scenery that was set up. I’m curious about how those designs came about. Who was was responsible for that?
It was the first show we've ever had a lighting designer at, which was really exciting. Riley, who works at the Berklee Performance Center, among other bands, tours, and jobs, designed a lighting show for our set. When we've played other venues, we've in the past just worked with whoever's at the venue, and they don't necessarily know our music going in, they’re trying to build a lighting atmosphere on the fly. Whereas [at the show on Friday] there were preset cues for every song in our set that synced up with the music. I think it elevates the show in a way where we've focused so much in the past just on the musical side, because that's all we thought we could be in control of, and [now] we've dived more into the full production: the scenery, the hanging umbrellas to match the tour theme, Sunshower, in the name of the EP, getting the lights cued up, and in Boston there was a video wall. Rather than just hanging up a giant banner, which we normally do, we were able to have an animated version of that where the text moves around. And I think it's exciting to, in a way, worldbuild. On a given night, people walk into the venue, and they're now a part of the Sunshower universe. We try to create something immersive and compelling visually so that as soon as the music starts, they feel like they're in a specific place with us rather than just, oh, we're at this venue and here's this band on the stage. We can instead collectively enter a space that we've created and curated to feel exactly how we want it to feel, and it's really exciting and fulfilling for us to take that into our own hands because it's something we've never done in the past.
That’s really cool. I was wondering about your couch. Is that something that travels with you? Is it always the same couch?
I think [that was] only the second or third time we've used that specific couch. I think we're probably going to have a new couch [for each tour]. In the past our aesthetic was vibrant yellow and vibrant blue. Those were the Couch colors and palette for a little bit. We had this bright blue couch and we took it on the road with us for about a year and a half, but with this new record and tour, the color scheme is different. It's a little bit less vibrant, a little more intentionally sleek and subtle. And so with that came this off-pink or muted pink—mauve, if you will—couch. And I think it fits in really nicely. It doesn't stick out, but it’s just a fun thing. And obviously the name of the group is Couch, so there's that immediate obvious association. But [it is also] an element on the stage for us to interact with; if someone's taking a solo and we want all eyes on them, then a group of us can go over to the side of the stage and sit on the couch. It's a good breather for us, and it's also a great way to let the audience know where their attention should be. So we've used it as a tool, but also a piece of comfort. And it's comfortable until the end of the night when we have to carry it out of the venue. But it's fun up until then!
And who’s the guy on the pillow [that is on the couch]?
The guy on the pillow is Jeff Goldblum. The story behind the pillow [is that] we played a gig in Cambridge, Massachusetts, two summers ago, one of our first shows. At the end of the show, we left for a second to say hi to some friends, and then when we got back on the stage to begin packing up there was just this pillow. And we were like, what is this? It's sequined, so if you push all of them in one direction, you can't see what it is. And then when you flip them all up, that's when Lord Jeff emerges. We have no idea who gifted it to us, but it's been with us ever since.
Beautiful. In a similar vein to the lighting and the set design, I definitely noticed and was impressed with the level of choreography and coordination in your performance. It clearly seemed very rehearsed, so I was wondering, did that take a lot of time or did it fall into place more naturally?
Some of the things we've talked about in rehearsal, like I mentioned with using the couch. A lot of what we're doing on stage with our bodies and where we're positioned is intentionally trying to let the audience know what the focal point is in any given moment. So, at the beginning of a song where it's just our singer Tema and maybe the keyboardist, maybe all of our bodies are angled toward Tema so that people realize this is a very focused moment. Some [of the things that are more dance-based] just happened on stage one night, and then the next night someone was like, I'm going to do this with this person now. And then it catches on and becomes either a full band thing or maybe something within the horns or within the rhythm section. It's a balance between trying to let the audience know where to focus at any given moment and then a few things we talked about in rehearsal and funny or fun things that happened on stage. Someone takes notice and goes, oh, that's great. Let's all do that tomorrow night. Now, a lot of it is unspoken. It just kind of happens. And some nights it doesn't. It's fun and keeps everyone on their toes and and physically engaged in the moment.
I am also curious about how you choose a song to cover. I know most bands play at least one cover in their set, but there's so many great songs out there. How do you pick just one that you're going to add to that set?
The choice for us to play covers in the first place was, and is still, mostly out of necessity. We just don't have a ton of music out. Our sets are 20-22 songs, and we have 15 original songs out right now. So there's time to fill, and we sometimes will add solos and other things to stretch out our original music, but it often leads us to needing to add some covers in there. To make it musically interesting for us and the audience, we try to take songs that people wouldn't expect us to cover. For example, a lot of people will say, oh, you guys should cover this Stevie Wonder song or this Michael Jackson song, it's so funky.
Yeah, or Lake Street Dive or something.
Or Lake Street Dive or something. Exactly. We would try to play [those songs] like those guys and just do it worse than them. So we try to take a song that isn't yet funky or isn't yet insert-style-that-we-want-to-pursue with the cover and, and then turn that song into that. So for this tour, we're doing “Sorry” by Justin Bieber. Last tour, and we're sometimes playing it on this tour, [we played] “Late Night Talking,” the Harry Styles tune. We [also] did a Kings of Leon song as a rock funk cover. It's really exciting for us. With our original music we're going for pop, even if there are jazzy and funky elements in there too, but with a cover, it's fun to take a pop tune, not hold back on musical ideas, and just do something that's really fun for us to arrange and perform. And there's not the same pressure [as when] arranging an original song, because it's not as much of a representation of who we are as songwriters. It's more just an opportunity to have fun and be very musical. That open-endedness makes rehearsing, arranging, and eventually playing these covers such such a blast.
That makes a lot of sense. I can tell from what we've talked about that the band is very playful and you guys are very collaborative. There's just a great vibe going on. What are your favorite things to do together that isn’t rehearsing or playing music?
That's a great question. We spend a lot of time driving around together. We play a lot of word games together in the car. A handful of us love to go bowling together anytime we can get a shot. I think we all bond over food, as good friends often do. Even when the venue says they can provide dinner in-house, we'll often not take them up on that and find somewhere awesome to eat and enjoy a meal all together. It’s a lot of fun and it is also a good opportunity to take our minds off of the business, and the music, and other things that are great and we love doing together, but when we’re on the road for a week or longer together, it’s great to have moments when those things can leave our minds and sitting down for a great meal is always a great opportunity for that.
Couch’s new record Sunshower came out on November 3rd and is available for streaming everywhere. Blankstein described the album as “five really different songs, and a lot of love and creativity went into them, so we’d love people to check it out.”
Couch is currently on their Sunshower tour, a 20-city U.S. headline tour supported by Alisa Amador, a Boston-based artist who won the NPR Tiny Desk Concert in 2022. After their East Coast leg, they will hit the West Coast and Texas, and wrap up in January in the Midwest. Tickets are available at couchtheband.com/tour, and the band can be found on social media @couchtheband.