Armor
For Sleep
w/ Boys Night Out, Chiodos,
Action Reaction, Men Women & Children
When: 2/14/2006
6:30 PM
Where: The
Clubhouse Music Venue
Went with Lane
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Perhaps the
most reflective moments of our lives are lived in
the minutes before sleep completely drowns out our
consciousness. We are forced to face our thoughts
and at the same time admit that sleep will soon wash
them all away. Armor for Sleep is about capturing
these moments. It’s rare these days to find a band
that interlaces a theme or a common thread throughout
the lyrical fabric of its songwriting. And it is precisely
this regard for literary technique that immediately
sets Armor for Sleep apart from so many of its contemporaries.
Singer and songwriter, Ben Jorgensen’s lyrics abound
with images of space, time-travel and dreams. He incorporates
these metaphorical motifs throughout many of his songs
to express solitude and disaffection in a manner that
not only sheds new light on these ideas, but also
so poignantly hits the proverbial nail on the head.
Jorgensen correlates emotional alienation to physical
insignificance in the scope of the cosmos, he sees
the world of dreams as a world of escape but also
of trepidation and he uses the bitter cold of winter
to parallel the bitter cold of the human condition.
Musically, Armor for Sleep’s style is dark and delicate,
but at the same time painfully distant. The guitars
can be as remote as the lyrics and then unexpectedly
explode into melodic phrases. There is a meticulously
crafted dynamic of ambient and airy spaces combined
with choruses that are heavy and driving and at times
reminiscent of early Sunny Day Real Estate. The amazing
thing though, is how infectious the songs are, and
how they can be so without being the least bit poppy
or generic. The songwriting will immediately draw
you in, but it is the vocals that keep you there.
Jorgensen’s voice has a quality and a natural tone
that soothes, but at the same time overruns with anxiety
as one notices the intense emotion fueling it
Band description courtesy of Luckymanonline.com
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