Review: The War on Drugs, triumphant in the first of two hometown shows at The Met – The Philadelphia Inquirer

The War on Drugs finally made it home.

It almost didnt happen. Plans for the Fishtown-founded band to play two nights at the Met Philadelphia starting Thursday were in peril this week after a member of the bands touring party tested positive for COVID-19.

Tour dates in Nashville and Atlanta were postponed, and it seemed like Philly fans were going to be denied the long-awaited return of the ever-more-majestic rock band whose last hometown shows came at the close of 2019, before the world turned upside down.

But there the Drugs were, on stage of the sold-out Met on Thursday. Fronted by Adam Granduciel, the band now stands seven strong with the addition of their newest member, West Philly multi-instrumentalist Eliza Hardy Jones.

So happy to be here, Granduciel said at the start, before launching into Old Skin, from 2021s terrific I Dont Live Here Anymore. Its a song about shedding former selves and moving on toward an uncertain future. He then added: We wouldnt miss this one for the world.

The War On Drugs are a Philadelphia band whose members reside all the the country Granduciel is based in Los Angeles and whose music now belongs to the world. Since the Drugs first show at Johnny Brendas in 2006, Granduciel has mastered a meticulous sound that draws on classic rock songwriters Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, 1980s hitmakers such as Dire Straits and Don Henley and crucially German motorik bands like Kraftwerk and Neu!

The influences are vintage, but Granduciels songs about dislocation, anxiety, and search for meaning feel contemporary. And the Drugs enveloping sound is y their own. Its brought the band acclaim 2017s A Deeper Understanding won a Grammy for best rock album and a global audience with a wide age range.

READ MORE: Adam Granduciel of The War on Drugs on the bands new album, fatherhood, and Philly as a memory of home

At the Met, the mostly masked crowd required to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test tended to be younger in the standing room pit, with more oldsters in the seated sections of the 3,400-capacity opera house. After Friday nights also sold-out show, the band is headed to New York to headline Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

In their recordings, the Drugs sound grows out of Granduciels work habits as a studio obsessive. He writes the music and lyrics, plays multiple instruments, and sings in a reedy voice that can bring Dylan strongly to mind, as it did at the Met on highlights like A Deeper Understandings Strangest Thing and IDLHAs Occasional Rain.

But what was thrilling about Thursdays show is how it demonstrated the Drugs growth as a band that may be expressing the singular point of view of an auteur, but has became staggeringly good at bringing a layered, precisely detailed sound vividly to life. (Smartly designed lighting, bathing the stage in red, purple, and black-and-white, added to the effect.)

On Thursday, the septet found its groove early in the career-spanning set, locking in by the third song, An Ocean Between the Waves from Lost in the Dream, the 2014 album on which Granduciels vision first came into high-definition focus.

The Drugs are characterized as a guitar band, and Granduciel did play his share of epic leads, usually bringing a song to its final crescendo. But what really distinguished the bands steady building, locomotive sound on Thursday were the textured layers of keyboards, adding to a rhythmic bed established by drummer Charlie Hall and the undulating bass lines played by Dave Hartley.

Grandicuel stood front and center singing and playing guitar making his instrument sound like some sort of Buck Rogers retro-futurist ray gun on Victim. Most of the other bandmates could be found at a keyboard at one time or another, and sometimes all at once.

That includes Robbie Bennett, whose elegant, repeated keyboard line powered Harmonias Dream, perhaps the evenings most gorgeous song. When not switching to keys, Jon Natchez plays a honking saxophone.

Anthony LaMarca is the bands second guitarist and pianist. Hardy Jones proved to be an invaluable addition, mixing keyboard duties with guitar and adding vocal grace to Living Proof and extra punch to IDLHAs careening title track.

It might stand to reason that with all those people on stage that The War on Drugs sound would grow cluttered and busy. Whats remarkable is that the opposite was true. The constituent parts rarely called attention to the themselves.

Each player contributed to a cohesive whole, taking the listener on a ride that typically began with a contemplative intro before building to a jet engine roar that was most impressive on Thursday on Red Eyes and Under the Pressure, two tracks from Lost in the Dream.

The sense of relief that the band were able to pull off a hometown show after two years off the road was palpable. Granduciel introduced the band members by first name only, as if everyone was among friends.

He noted that the tour is forgoing opening acts to minimize interactions that might increase COVID-19 risk, then noted that his father was seen walking around on stage before the show. Hes our opening act.

The 15-song set, which began at 8:30 p.m., was one song shorter than the previous shows on the tour, which began in Texas last week. Before closing with the hopeful Byrds-like folk rocker Occasional Rain, Granduciel said he had been sick, so were gonna take it easy tonight. Were going to do it again and give you some more tomorrow. On Friday afternoon, the band tweeted that they would be starting the second show promptly at 8 p.m., and urged fans to arrive early due to the inclement weather.

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Review: The War on Drugs, triumphant in the first of two hometown shows at The Met - The Philadelphia Inquirer