Local Natives’ “Hummingbird” Sings on Stage

Local Natives' Taylor Rice at the Fox Theater.Photos by Brett Brownell

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Local Natives, the mesmerizing, harmonizing, Los Angeles-based four-piece, has successfully avoided the sophomore slump with the release, last week, of its second album, Hummingbird. It follows their bright and bouncy 2010 debut Gorilla Manor, which landed them tours with the likes of Arcade Fire and The National. In fact, The National’s Aaron Dressner was so enamored with Local Natives that he decided to help them produce Hummingbird.

The night after the album’s release, a sold-out crowd greeted Local Natives at Oakland’s 2,800-seat Fox Theater. “This is a big night for us,” vocalist/guitarist Taylor Rice said from the stage. “Our second record came out yesterday. This is the first time we’ve played Oakland. And this is the biggest show we’ve ever played.” He was visibly humbled by the size and reaction of the audience.

The streamed preview of the new album provided by the PR folks sounded pretty good, but it felt like something was missing. Maybe the songs weren’t grand enough, or personal enough—or maybe being tethered to a computer was the wrong way to listen? Or my headphones didn’t have enough bass?

So I decided to come out to the show, because sometimes it takes a live performance to solidify your opinion of an album—you need to to share it with a few thousand other people. As soon as the band began filling the historic downtown theater with “You & I,” the first track off Hummingbird, I felt like I was hearing it for the first time.

Image: Local Natives

Local Natives at the Fox.

Hummingbird is not as immediate as Gorilla Manor. It feels nostalgic, retrospective, and at times frustrated. If Gorilla Manor was the theme to your back yard barbeque in 2010, Hummingbird might be your group therapy after getting burned. Songs like “Wooly Mammoth” and especially “Beakers” have catchy grooves, while “Ceilings,” “Black Spot,” and the apparent Sigur Ros ode “Three Months,” are close-your-eyes dreamy.

But “Colombia” will remain one of the most sobering songs of the year. Vocalist/keyboardist Kelcey Ayer lost his mother in 2012. The song, named after her home country, finds Ayer sharing his quest for reassurance. “You gave and gave and gave and gave…Every night I ask myself, am I giving enough?”

By the end, as he’s calling her out by name, be prepared to feel a sharp chill and desire to respond with “Yes.”

Image: Kelcey Ayer

Vocalist/Keyboardist Kelcey Ayer.

Image: Fox Theater crowd

The Oakland crowd cheers for Local Natives.

Click here for more music coverage from Mother Jones.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate