Cursive brings new meaning and weight to the term ‘emo’. Taking the stage at Frankies on October 12, their theatrical, emotionally-charged rock and roll is a unique blend of breast-baring/self-indicting lyrics and shifty, prickly post-punk. Now into their second decade, the quintet is fresh from a spring stint and will revisit their breakthrough 2003 release, The Ugly Organ.
The Ugly Organ remains Cursive’s best-selling release. Coming on the heels of Omaha’s momentary post-millennial transformation into a college “it” town (see also Athens, Chapel Hill, Minneapolis, Seattle), The Ugly Organ featured references to Bright Eyes’ buddy Conor Oberst’s success alongside odes to Kasher’s spiritual confusion, notably “Art Is Hard.”
“We felt really, really strongly about the material. We did our first tour of Europe right before we went into the studio to record Organ,” says Cursive guitarist Ted Stevens. “When we came back stateside we had road-tested the material long enough that we felt it was good. We knew it was something we liked, which gave us a lot of confidence.”
Mellow Cello
Cursive won’t be playing The Ugly Organ start to finish like they did in March, but t Omaha cellist Megan Siebe remains from that tour, turning the band into a sextet for the time being. When they wrote Organ, their original cellist, Greta Cohn, was still in the group. Her departure in 2005 took Cursive back in a noisier direction.
Stevens enjoys revisiting that old style.
“We figured if we’re going out with Coheed & Cambria it’s nice to have a full band as well,” he says. “The cello is such an easy instrument to pick out of a mix because it sounds so good and everyone can hear it and appreciate that low tone. It adds really good texture to what the guitar and bass are doing already.”
It’s also meant digging into some unlit corners of Cursive’s catalog.
“We had songs that we haven’t played off that album in a very long time— if at all,” he continues. “So it was really exciting to put that stuff together for the first time in some cases and I was singing more which is fun.”
Due For Another Installment
Cursive has released three albums in three-year intervals since Organ, concluding with 2012’s baroque epic I Am Gemini, about mythic battling brothers Cassius and Pollock. Though Cursive’s due for a new release, Kasher’s been busy lately with Everybody’s Coming Down, the first new album from his side project The Good Life in eight years.
“It is kind of a surprise record after so many years,” Stevens admits, but he’s a big fan. “It’s a really nice listen. The tones are really cool and so are the songs.”
Stevens had hoped for some clarity after the Spring tour what would happen next with Cursive, but Kasher excels at keeping people guessing, even with the latest tour.
“We’re still waiting to find out what the future holds,” he says. “That was more of a plan to experience a six week anniversary tour, our first of that kind of tour. This one is more of a surprise like ‘Well, you know, why not?’”
Since joining the band in 1999, Stevens has learned to cool his jets, and wait for whatever will happen with Cursive (recording-wise) to happen.
“I’m always happy when it happens and surprised,” he chuckles, explaining the process. “I’ll have to stop anticipating it before it will actually happen.”
Cursive, 8pm on Monday, October 12
$15-$17
Frankies Inner City, 308 Main St.
419-691-7464 | innovationconcerts.com
