After several months of touring, Band of Horses finally made it to Boston. I, for one, was looking forward to crossing them off my to-see list, and anticipated a show confirming the excellence of their album, Everything All the Time.

Boy, was I wrong. To be blunt, there were three major problems with the performance. First, the reverb on Ben’s vocals was out of control. The high end continuously stabbed our eardrums, despite pleas from the crowd to turn it down. A far cry from the constant reverb adjustments Cat Power made on Tuesday. Second, the sheer amount of new and cover songs dissipated most of the fervor, like some adrenaline sponge. I’m not a big fan of bands playing new songs at shows, and this show was especially disturbed by them. Finally, the stage banter was painful. Among the bland yapping were the multiple Seattle pride statements about how that town gave us David Ortiz and Jason Varitek. Seeing as neither Red Sox superstar ever played a game for the Mariners, these were absolutely idiotic comments, worthy of a stage-storming and destruction of BoH property of persons. There was a clear disconnect of emotion from the crowd, as frat mooks drunkenly ended up doing most of the clapping.

There were a few, sparse high points in the show, but too rare to bear mentioning. I’m glad I got to see the band, but beyond that, left highly unimpressed and downright disappointed. The theme of the horror stories of past tour stops about amateur night-esque follies, much like with Cat Power, seemed to continue with this gig, and frankly, they need to get their act together before bothering to come back. In a sort of ruinous justice, the people who stayed for the final cover and last song of the show missed the last train in town. An appropriate way to finish off a night that was a pain in the ass and ears.