On Tuesday five tall, handsome men who dressed like they were ready to take you out to dinner took the stage at the Bottleneck and made our hearts melt.

About five years ago, The Walkmen played a show in Lawrence. I missed that show and thought “Hey, they’ll come back next year.” I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be to see them, so I was elated when tickets went on sale for the recent Lawrence show. It’s about darn time they made a trip back here to little old Larryville.

The Walkmen didn’t disappoint. They kept the mood calm, laid back, smooth. Almost as though they were saying “Hey, relax for just a bit….here, we’ll unbutton the top button on our shirts and let’s all take it easy the rest of the night.”

The songs were a lot slower than what you would hear on the albums. In fact, that was one of the great things about the show, you didn’t at all get what you heard on the albums, you got something new and wonderful.

I dragged the husband out for this one. He’s not too familiar with the Walkmen, but I knew the show was a win with him when he noted how impressed he was with the singing. We were all treated to Hamilton Leithauser’s explosive voice, as he belted out the anthems of my youth.

I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy the slower pacing of the songs. It felt like they stopped time, on this busy weeknight, so that we all could come out and enjoy the atmosphere in slow motion. We sat basking in some serious mood lighting, as the band never really had the lights turned up too high. It was oh so romantic and ooh la la.

I was fairly nostalgic as one by one they churned out the songs that meant the most to me in my younger days. Every time they released an album, I felt like they were setting the scene for the next couple of years of my life, like they were narrating the journey from my youth through adulthood. It’s a good thing they slowed down the night, because I wanted to absorb every minute of it.

Here’s my favorite Walkmen song: