“Don’t cough! It’s psychological! I’m Phil Elverum! … That’s not how I meant it.” The auditorium was covered in a thick layer of fog from two hissing fog machines. Phil Elverum (aka Mount Eerie aka the Microphones) was up to it again, being quirky and hilarious. Earlier he’d explained: “You can breathe. It’s safe to breathe. If you’re coughing it’s only psychological.”

Walking into the auditorium, I knew this would not be the everyday sort of show. It was presented by Club Sandwich and All Ages Movement Project so not only were there sandwiches available for purchase, but many of the attendees were younger than most of the shows I go to.

The auditorium was probably about how you remember your high school auditorium being: a gently sloping area where the fold-up seats were and a raised stage with curtains.

A.F. Jamison “opened” for Mount Eerie with a talk about Eritrea, One Laptop Per Child and some (sometimes marginally) related topics. It was interesting but the set up was a little iffy with not all of it seeming to relate to later parts of the talk and the conclusion came suddenly.

Phil and his nylon-string guitar came on stage a few minutes after the fog machines had started. The crowd was in the dark and rapidly covered by a growing layer of fog. He also had a projector set up with a rotating set of videos showing mostly nature scenes. (Fog rolling over some hills was the first, which fit well with the fog rolling over the audience).

With just the guitar and his voice, spun his songs, almost hypnotically out into the audience that looked a little bit like they were sitting in a spooky, fog-filled graveyard listening to this odd troubadour. With the hiss of the fog machines and pops and crackles from temperamental pick-ups or mics, the sound almost seemed like it might be coming from an old record player. At times it was totally transfixing and at others, I just sat back as the songs rolled across me.

Phil didn’t say a lot between songs, just some quirky little things here and there. Occasionally, though, he’d come out with something that was hilarious, like with a few songs left, he said: “I’m going play until it’s time for you to leave. Actually, I’m going to play until it’s time for you to buy merchandise. Straight up. I love money. Now for my emotional sensitive song.”

All in all, a unique and really solid show.

I bought the reissue of the Glow, pt 2. I asked Phil if it had a “bajillion” bonus tracks and he claimed that might be a slight exaggeration.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 12:25 am Posted by adrian in SF bay area, live review. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.