Wintersleep may hail from Halifax, Nova Scotia, but the group's sound is distinctly and quintessentially American: brusque yet romantic, contemplative yet adventurous. Singer Paul Murphy has a captivating, empathic voice—a cross between Eddie Vedder and Michael Stipe—that winds through the quartet's expansive, gradual songs like a dirt road bisecting an autumn countryside. He takes pleasure in holding on to lyrics a mite too long, unearthing unexplainable emotions therein. The music—a patient strain of folky post-rock that often catches the ear unawares with its sudden mood swings—sometimes seems to exist as a refuge for Murphy, a reflective, melancholy shawl of sound that doubles as a coat of arms. Don't sleep on this show. With Portugal. The Man, Earl Greyhound. All ages.
Sun., Nov. 9, 5:30 p.m., 2008