In a performance that felt like a delivery postmarked 1970, the indie rock band, The Lemon Twigs, played at Off Broadway in St. Louis on March 11. The Lemon Twigs, composed of two brothers, Brian and Michael D’Addario, brought an intimacy to Off Broadway that made up for the holes in the crowd. As Off Broadway filled with a mix of 70’s revival shags and now-graying original 70’s styles, the venue began to groove to a rhythm 50 years past. 

Paul Millar, the band’s technician, opened for The Lemon Twigs under his stage name, Slugbug. His style fell somewhere between the introspective monologues of Talking Heads’ David Bryne and the techno-pop of Jack Stauber. In a pre-show interview, The Lemon Twigs shared that Millar was a studio mate. 

“He used to fix tape machines of ours,” Brian D’Addario added. “That’s how we first met him, [Millar] was getting stuff fixed by him.”

Once Millar finished his set of songs about his bedroom, government bureaucracies and not having sex, The Lemon Twigs took the stage. The brothers’ mimicked each other’s body language, often tucking their hair behind their ears at the same time or referencing each other as they played. 

“We have shared a lot of the same experience and listened to a lot of the same music, and we work the same way,” Brian D’Addario said. “It’s kind of hard working with other people because you can’t be as blunt about how things are sounding.” 

The Lemon Twigs, surprisingly shy offstage, possessed an unconventional charisma that made it hard to look away from their performance. The brothers’ tight jeans and short shorts contributed to their magnetism. At times, their homage to the culture of the ‘70s read as a caricature of itself. 

The band’s latest singles, “Any Time of Day” and “Corner Of My Eye,” blended surf rock harmonies with lyrics akin to the rock ballads of the late 60’s. 

“I feel like when we make music that we like, it always connects with [our fans],” Brian D’Addario said, citing The Beach Boys and Roy Wood as the duo’s primary inspirations. 

The Lemon Twigs’ overtly seventies-inspired ballads are just edgy enough to appeal to a variety of age groups. Michael, brooding yet boyish, and Brian, charmingly earnest, created a sound caught in suspension. Guitar riffs culminated in theatrical flourishes led by the D’Addario’s trade-off of lead vocals. 

Michael had shared concerns about his voice before the show, saying he had “blown it out” on the first night of the tour. On stage, a mug of tea and a bottle of beer sat next to Michael’s microphone, and he took turns sipping both to soothe his throat.

After the band’s final song, Brian came back on stage to perform a solo acoustic ballad. With everything else stripped away, his sincerity and vocal precision re-emphasized what makes him such a talented performer. Not infallible however, his guitar strap snapped in the middle of the song and he reattached it with a good-natured giggle. 

Edited by Savvy Sleevar | ssleevar@themaneater.com 

Copy edited by Kyla Pehr and Grace Knight