o What: Manchester Orchestra, in concert.
o When: 8 p.m. March 12.
o Where: Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 S.E. 39th Ave., Portland.
o Cost: $14 in advance, $17 the day of the show through TicketsWest, 800-992-8499 or ticketswest.com.
o Information: 503-233-7100 or hawthornetheatre.com.
Manchester Orchestra isn’t from Manchester. Neither is it an orchestra. It’s a rock band from Atlanta and it’s taken on a mission — to revamp and re-energize the genre.
The quintet isn’t looking to reinvent the form or add something new like the African styles incorporated by Vampire Weekend. They just want rock to be gripping again.
o What: Manchester Orchestra, in concert.
o When: 8 p.m. March 12.
o Where: Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 S.E. 39th Ave., Portland.
o Cost: $14 in advance, $17 the day of the show through TicketsWest, 800-992-8499 or ticketswest.com.
o Information: 503-233-7100 or hawthornetheatre.com.
“I think there’s definitely something lacking in popular rock music today, especially what gets played on the radio,” said keyboardist Chris Freeman. “You get Nickelback and Creed. We need something a lot more daring and challenging, something that rock ’n’ roll is missing now. We try to do something more intense than other rock bands do.”
Manchester Orchestra’s intensity can be heard on “Live from Soho,” a new eight-song set available exclusively through iTunes that was recorded in December.
Filled with songs from “Mean Everything to Nothing,” the band’s 2009 studio album, “Live from Soho” includes a version of the top-10 modern rock hit “I’ve Got Friends.”
“Mean Everything to Nothing” was released in April to rave reviews and the band toured behind it for the rest of the year. It’s now back on the road for a 75-date tour that will include an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and a wrap-up performance at this year’s Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn.
Unlike last year when it opened for Silversun Pickups and Brand New, Manchester Orchestra will either be headlining the upcoming shows, or co-headlining them alongside Thrice.
“There’s a different kind of satisfaction playing in front of your own crowd,” Freeman said. “You enjoy the connection with your fans. You can really enjoy the show.”
The spring 2010 tour is also giving Manchester Orchestra the opportunity to work with a new drummer who replaces the departing Jeremiah Edmond for the tour.
‘A pretty good array’
The song list for the spring 2010 tour will be far more expansive than the necessarily compact “Live at Soho” set.
“We’re playing a pretty good array of old and new songs,” Freeman said. “The old songs are changing too, becoming more like the new songs.”
Those old songs go all the way back to the Manchester Orchestra’s earliest recordings in 2004 but also include the band’s 2007 debut album “I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child,” which was the first full-length song from the band put together by frontman and lyricist Andy Hull, who was 19 when the record was released.
The teen-aged Hull gave his band — which along with Freeman includes bassist Jonathan Corley and guitarist Robert McDowell — its misleading moniker. Hull was heavily into the Smiths and other music that came from Manchester, England, when the band started and he envisioned a rotating group of players combining their efforts as in an orchestra.
That, Freeman said, didn’t work out and a more traditional band emerged, but kept the Manchester Orchestra name.
The members of Manchester Orchestra are now all in their early 20s and have already played major festivals, such as Coachella and Lollapalooza, worked on solo and side projects, such as Freeman’s “Alaska Him Nicely,” and toured internationally.
The young band even runs its own label, Favorite Gentleman Recordings, which Hull and Edmond founded in 2004 to stay in control of their music and to help out other artists.
In June, Manchester Orchestra will head into the studio to record its third album. The band already has demo’d about 30 songs from which it will choose.
Freeman says the new disc will be more “Southerny,” reflecting the band’s Georgia roots and music by Neil Young and some jam bands that the band has been listening to of late.
Freeman’s not sure whether any of those songs will make an appearance during the shows this spring, but many are being worked out at sound checks, another reason for the band to hit the road this spring.
The final reason for the spring tour is simple. The way bands make money these days isn’t selling records, it’s by playing shows.
“We’re ready to get back in the studio, but we need to make some money,” Freeman said with a laugh, before getting a bit cheerily sarcastic. “There’s so much money in indie rock. I can see the headline now: ‘Manchester Orchestra is all about the money.’ This is great.”
