Photo by Maria E. Gotay

“And oh we sailed into the night and took that sea on blindly, escaping all the glitter and the fray. And though we can’t deny the fear that grows of being swallowed whole, we will row to sunny shores and start again…” “Another Sky” by Akron/Family

During a conversation I shared with Dana Janssen, drummer of Brooklyn-based pscyh-folk outfit Akron/Family, he referred to the group’s latest album Akron/Family II: The Birth and Cosmic Journey of Shinju TNT as a “burst of joy” and comfort illuminating the lives of the three band mates in the recent years following the departure of founding member Ryan Vanderhoof. “I feel really excited and really happy with where I’m at,” Janssen later added. The album’s lyrics, such as the above excerpt from “Another Sky,” ring with calmed acceptance and dreamlike enchantment, while the music transitions from delicate pastoral meanderings to wicked explosions of fierce guitars, growling bass, and charging drums.

The band’s live show, much in tune with the optimism of Akron/Family II, was a raucous example of ensemble improvisation, bursting at the seams with fat bass and hazy electronic soundscapes. Touring essentially as a three-piece, the group retained the traditional guitar, bass, and drums set-up throughout the show, although each member did also use a small cache of electronic pedals and samples to further embellish the psychedelic textures provided by the main instruments.

Akron/Family opened the set with “We All Will” off their split album with Michael Gira’s Angels of Light project. Composed from tidings of melancholy insecurity and the stifled boredom of growing old, the song served as a thought-provoking prologue to the night, bearing the emotional insecurity the band may have felt with the loss of Vanderhoof, which has since been eschewed by optimism and comfort. With a smooth segue into “River” from 2009’s Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free, the band promptly removed themselves from the staid banks of “docile stream” to a “vast and open sea” of endless possibilty, drawing the Bowery Ballroom audience to share this wide-eyed freedom with group chants and the boundless energy emanating from the speakers and the stage.

The music of Akron/Family never lags, never sloths, nor does it take a moment to stand still. Every song, even the soft ones, are embedded with infectious rhythms, which in a live setting quickly stir to the crowd, which begins jumping chanting, and clapping as the band surges forward. Their newfound comfort with themselves as individuals seemed to catch onto every member of the crowd. Smiles sprang from frowns, shouts of laughter, and waves of comfort passed from body to body swaying to an irrepressible beat.

Within the past several years, Akron/Family’s more experimental tendencies have been merging into the foreground with greater emphasis on electronic manipulation and waves of fuzz, than the free-jazz freakouts which characterized some of their earlier work. At various points throughout the set, the band dropped their instruments and fascinated themselves and the audience with harsh drones and ambiently layered loops. As the disparate noise filled the room, the band members, lost within the world of sound they busied themselves attending, grew entranced, enveloping the audience in swarms of discordant textures.

Throughout the set, the band actively encouraged audience interaction, conducting dances, sing-alongs, group meditations, and even bringing a couple of audience members onstage to help with percussion and vocals. The band concluded their set with a graceful, a cappella rendition of “Love and Space,” leading the audience in the song’s titular mantra for what felt like an eternity.

For a few hours, Akron/Family transported their audience from a cool night in Manhattan’s Lower East Side to a place of catharsis, free of inhibitions and immersed in the simple joy of living. Time moves and the world turns, but for a few hours, Akron/Family drew a place free from worry and doubt, concerned only with noise, friendship, and freedom.