Zydeco night at Rock n Bowl

I was in New Orleans with some friends over New Year’s and I keep thinking back on the first three nights we were there. They were among the most satisfying consecutive nights of music I’ve had. And the great thing is that they were standing gigs, so if you go, you can probably see the same events.

So without further ado, here are three recommendations for shows in New Orleans:

• Zydeco night at Rock n Bowl: This one is not quite a show as much as a musical experience. My friends and I headed to Rock n Bowl our first night in New Orleans for Zydeco. (The night we went Geno Delafose was performing, but I think the music is pretty consistently good there.) There was a stage, a dance floor, a bar and a bowling alley, all right next to each other. Zydeco, a style of Louisiana dance music with heavy use of the washboard, along with some accordion and rock instruments, is a lively and fun music to watch and dance to. Even better is bowling to it. And if our night wasn’t complete by drinking, bowling and jiving to the band, near the end of the night the bartenders got on the bar and hula-hooped. Check calendar for nights.
• Rebirth Brass Band at the Maple Leaf: The next night we went to Uptown to Maple Leaf to see the Rebirth Brass Band’s (myspace) standing Tuesday night gig. Their first set started at about 11pm; after a half hour break, their next set started at about 12:30am. I’m not sure how many sets they played that night but they were coming on for at least another. Mixing traditional New Orleans brass band (second-line) elements with hip hop, funk, soul and jazz, the band tore the roof off of the packed and sweaty Maple Leaf in a long continuous set of originals and covers. The sound wasn’t the best at the club but the tunes and atmosphere were great as everyone seemed to enjoyed the performance. Tuesdays.
• Walter “Wolfman” Washington at d.b.a.: For our third night, we headed to the Marigny to see Walter “Wolfman” Washington’s (myspace) at d.b.a.. “Wolfman” is an old school R&B/ soul musician. He has a bunch of young guns filling out his band and they’re tight. D.B.A. is also a nice bar with a good selection of the beers, so between that and the solid music, it’s a good time. Wednesdays.

Sandy from Slowcoustic asked me if I wanted to take part of his “Best of…Bloggers” series and I was happy to take part. This originally appeared at there. I had a bit of a hard time deciding what “Best of” I could do for 2009 since my music involvement has been very different for the last four months of it, so I decided to do this.

–

Of possibly everything related to music that people rate, probably one of the most subjective is live performances. There’s so much besides the music that factors into the experience–what else happened that day, were you with friends or alone, what your expectations were, what the people standing near you were like–that one’s review sometimes not even up to the performers.

With that in mind, I present to you, in chronological order, very personal list of most memorable music moments from 2009.

• David Bazan @ house show, Berkeley (2/18)
  I saw two of Bazan’s house shows this year but this was easily the better. Attentively sitting on someone’s living room floor, about thirty big-time Bazan fans watched him perform without amplification a few feet away. The music was great, the between-song conversation was good, the crowd was awesome–there wouldn’t be a lot of ways to make this show better.



• Yoni Wolf @ Apple Store (2/28)
  I hadn’t much considered Why? before this. This show with the frontman and an electric piano changed that somewhat. But what is most memorable about this performance was the once-off cover of “This is the Day.” I remember the hymn from church growing up but Wolf’s version that day was dark and haunting and still sticks with me.



• Les Savy Fav @ the Mezzanine, San Francisco (3/1)
  I’d heard many stories about the antics of Les Savy Fav live show and, in particular, frontman Tim Harrington’s antics. This show did not disappoint whatsoever. Harrington came out covered in toilet paper but quickly stripped down to his shorts. Before the night was up he spit beer into the crowd, licked the lens of the photographer standing next to me and ducked taped a girl to him. In between all of this, he managed to sing some songs.



• The Rural Alberta Advantage @ Central Presbyterian, Austin (3/19); @ Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco (7/9)
  Two very different shows but both very memorable. At the Central Presbyterian show during SxSW, I saw the band completely win over an audience of people largely unfamiliar with their music. They were on top form and I had chills for about half the show. When the finished the show acoustically in the main aisle of the church, I was in awe like everyone around me. The Bottom of the Hill show was the last Ipickmynose Presents show and it was a rousing success. Two days after their debut album came out to much acclaim, the band seemed to still be surprised by their success and performed a fantastic show.



• The Tallest Man on Earth @ the Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco (3/25)
  I’d been obsessing about Shallow Grave for months leading up to this show, which was just a week after I’d seen the Swede, Kristian Matsson, at SxSW. This show was more noteworthy than the SxSW in that this performance was just perfect. Matsson has a way of performing that is just as much about movement as it is about music. He sits during the slow beginning of a song and then stands moves fluidly to the front of the stage and looks out into the audience. After this show nearly everyone I talked to said they thought he was looking right at them, bringing the performance to each audience member in a way few artists do.



• Damien Jurado @ Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco (5/5)
  I’ve seen Jurado perform about six or seven times now, but this show seemed to have what would have been my hand-picked setlist of favorites performed with intensity. In his first four songs were “Ghost of David”, “Medication” and “Ohio” and I knew it would be a good night.



• Iron & Wine @ Swedish America Hall, San Francisco (5/7)
  I’d seen Iron & Wine a few times, including one magical time in 2004 at the Great American Music Hall, but even that time wasn’t at a venue as small as the Swedish American. Maybe this show stuck with me because his setlist, chosen by fans on his website, was filled with nostalgic favorites. Maybe it was because the Swedish American has great acoustics for solo shows. Maybe it was just a great performance.



• Or, the Whale @ the Independent, San Francisco (6/6)
  I love Or, the Whale and this show was good, but the experience here wasn’t about the music (which was great as always). Two months before I was to leave for South Africa, the experience was noteworthy because every time I turned around there was a friend of mine or someone I wanted to talk to. It was a blast and I went home thinking I might be making a mistake moving away.



• John Vanderslice @ Secret House Show, San Francisco (7/25)
  I’m still not sure how this all came together but my going away party in San Francisco was a secret show by John Vanderslice in my apartment to me and thirty of my friends. Completely without amplification, JV was accompanied by Jamie Riotta on upright bass and vocals. My cheeks hurt from grinning so much. It was utterly spellbinding and will probably go down as one of my most memorable music experiences in my entire life.

White Plains from ipickmynose on Vimeo.

• “Oh How I’d Miss You” @ my apartment, San Francisco (7/25)
  Following JV’s performance, I played a killer soul playlist with this Marvin Gaye/ Tammi Terrell number on it. After people trickled out, my lady friend and I spontaneously danced in an empty living room to this song. But, given that I was leaving the country a week later, the lyrics were a bit too topical and near the end of the song I looked up to see her crying.
• Sangoma Ceremony @ private home, Khayelitsha, South Africa (8/15)
  Saying yes to a series of opportunities led me to be in a tiny tin-sided house off a dirt path in a township outside Cape Town. A new sangoma (sometimes translated as ‘witch doctor’) was being initiated and there was much dancing, singing and clapping among the couple dozen people packed into the house. It was an experience that few outsiders get to have.



• Zulu hymns @ small church, Ingwavuma (9/6)
  This church is at the end of the road, literally. The tar road ends about 2km before it and the dirt road ends right at it. A few hundred meters father, the hill drops off steeply into Swaziland. The hymns during the actual service were sung in both Zulu and English but were largely not noteworthy. While I was sitting waiting for the service to begin, though, women scattered around the room spontaneously and seemingly without coordination started the most beautiful hymns I’d ever heard. Four part harmony filled the room. It was baking hot in that room and I still had chills.

–

What have been your most memorable music moments this year?

One may wonder how I’m so lucky. I often wonder the same thing. A great going away party has all your friends, plenty of good conversation, and maybe some beer if you’re into that sort of thing. Add to that an intimate, acoustic performance by one of your favorite musicians and it’s really hard to describe how amazing the outcome is.

John Vanderslice (myspace) did just that for my going away part. He and Jamie Riotto (on upright bass) played about an hour with no mics or amplification whatsoever. The gathered audience, sitting on the floor of my cleared out Mission apartment, was entranced. There was hardly a sound except for thunderous applause and “woos!” after each and every song. Figuring that the effect of having this show in my own apartment and for me had skewed my perspective, I said to a number of people afterwards “that was pretty good, right?” Every single one of them corrected me: “No, that was amazing.”

Thanks, JV, for making it a wonderful evening an unforgettable one. And if you were in the audience, thanks for coming. These videos and photos don’t do it justice, but they’re something I’d like to share here anyway.

Romanian Names from ipickmynose on Vimeo.

White Plains from ipickmynose on Vimeo.

Lucifer Rising, by John Vanderslice from ipickmynose on Vimeo.

I have a signed set list among my prized possessions but unfortunately I don’t have a scan of it handy. I will add it to this page eventually.

JV, by the way, has a new 7″ coming out with “Too Much Time” on it. You can get it from Dead Oceans. They’ve also posted a demo version of the song, which is flippin great:

John Vanderslice – Too Much Time (demo) (mp3)

For the latest ipickmynose presents show, the Rural Alberta Advantage (myspace) and Half-handed Cloud (myspace) played the Bottom of the Hill last Thursday. Okay was scheduled to be the middle band but had to cancel due to illness.

Half-handed Cloud went on a bit later than the original start time due to the schedule only having two bands instead of three. The growing crowd was getting a bit restless. John Ringhofer played a half a dozen instruments–banjo, omnichord, percussion and trombone among them–sometimes accompanied by pre-recorded instruments on a tape player. He played his quirky, short and cute folk pop songs in a straight-forward but endearing manner. It was a fun set.

The venue was getting pretty full by the time the Rural Alberta Advantage went on. Having just come off their CD release two days prior and very positive review from P4k among many others, the band was obviously basking in the glow of the new attention.

Playing most of Hometowns with a couple new songs thrown in, the band came out and gave it their all. From the audience members around me, I literally heard gasps at the band’s performance, particularly Paul’s intricate and barely-contained drumming. When the RAA hit “Don’t Haunt This Place”, their third or fourth song, I don’t thing there were many at the show who were left unconvinced at the greatness of the band’s live show.

They were very appreciative throughout the show of the crowd and the reception they were receiving. And the audience was receptive–it felt like everyone was leaning forward just to be a little closer to the band.

At the end of the set, the band came out for an encore, of course. Nils led off with a convincing solo rendition of “Eye of the Tiger” that turned into a sing-along. After the song, Nils remarked that he wanted to just keep repeating the chorus because it was so much fun singing with the audience. After another song, they left the stage again, only to be called back for a second, non-obligatory encore. It was a gorgeous version of “Sleep All Day”. All in all it was a fantastic show that I was proud to be involved with.

On Thursday I saw the Tallest Man on Earth at the Independent. Nathaniel Rateliff and the Wheel from Denver opened.

As I walked into the club, I saw that tables were laid out, covering most of the floor. I’d been to partially seated shows at the Indie before but I did not expect this show to be seated. It definitely changes the dynamic of the show to have people seated and spaced out as opposed to crunched up against the stage.

The Wheel opened the show. A five piece with two guitars (electric, acoustic), keyboards, upright bass and drums, they played a fairly subdued sort of indie country/ alt country. While I wasn’t completely enthralled, they did play a nice set and their songs were good. They had some particularly nice moments with three vocalist harmonizing together.

It was the third time I’d seen the Tallest Man on Earth in six months. And, yet, it was still an excellent show.

After a month long tour with John Vanderslice and touring on and off for most of the last year, he’s developed new and different arrangements for some of his songs from both the recorded versions and previous live versions. Kristian Matsson is an excellent performer that uses his songs, his multi-faceted voice and movement around the stage–sitting on his chair, walking up to the very edge and looking out into the crowd–to pull people into his songs. While he may not have the banter and stories of fellow Swede Jens Lekman, he’s a gifted showman. In the end the Rickshaw show in March felt more intimate and may stay with me longer, but this show was still great.

Andrew Bird, changing the way I hear his music, at the Fillmore, May 2007

Usually, I like a bands’ recordings and then I’ll see them live. Sometimes, though, something about a band’s music won’t click until I see them live. I find the oddest part of this phenomenon not that I’ll like bands live whose recordings didn’t work for me, but that when I go back to listen to the recordings afterwards, I’ll hear them differently often forever.

For example, I’d listened to Mumford & Sons before SxSW and thought they were ‘meh’. I saw them there and really liked their show and now I love listening to their recordings, though they’re the same recordings I thought were ‘meh’ before.

Bands whose live show changed how I listen to their recordings [in chronological order from first show]

1. Mates of State
   (first seen: October 2001 at the Middle East (upstairs), Cambridge)
2. the Polyphonic Spree
   (first seen: August 2003 at the Paradise, Boston)
3. Ted Leo
   (first seen: March 2007 at the Great American, San Francisco)
4. the Dodos
   (first seen March 2007 at the Cafe du Nord, San Francisco)
5. Mount Eerie
   (first seen April 2007 at ATA, San Francisco)
6. Andrew Bird
   (first seen May 2007 at the Fillmore, San Francisco)
7. Frightened Rabbit
   (first seen: November 2008 at the Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco)
8. Mumford & Sons
   (first seen: March 2009 at the Flamingo Cantina, Austin)

So which bands changed the way you heard them?

Friday night I saw something different at the Independent: King Sunny Ade & His African Beats. From Nigeria, they play Juju music, popular music which is influenced by Yoruba percussion.

In a room drenched in the smell of pot and body odor and with a distinctly different crowd than the average indie show at the Independent, Ade played a two hour-plus set to the appreciative crowd. The band was a big one: Ade on vocals and sometimes guitar, two additional vocalists, seven percussionists, guitar, bass, and keyboards. Everyone in the band seemed thrilled to be there and to be playing.

They played well and the mix sounded good. People danced and sang along–if they could figure out the words. My favorite songs were the more guitar-heavy ones; during some of the percussion-centric ones, with incessant beats and lyrics I didn’t understand, I felt my attention wandering. But it was a fun show nevertheless.

Wednesday was the Stranger Dance presented show at the Rickshaw Stop with French Miami, By Sunlight (myspace) and Silian Rail. With two of my favorite local bands and a third band from Seattle, I was looking forward to this show.

I got there shortly before Silian Rail went on. With an amalgam of images projected on the screen behind them, Robin (guitar) and Eric (drums, guitar, bass pedals, glockenspiel) put together a compelling set of old and new songs. Trying out a lot of new material during the set–which Eric later told me is almost a whole album’s worth–the audience wasn’t familiar with the songs but they were into it anyway. “Drunken Boat” and some of the other old songs were still my favorites, but a solid set all around.

By Sunlight were up next. They put together a number of elements I like–interest vocals, harmonic structures and instrumentation–but the end result wasn’t engaging for me.

Finally, French Miami closed out the show. I’ve said it before, but it always strikes me that their angular, sometimes dancey music–which I often don’t like–is so compelling. Melodic riffs and heavy synths combined with sometimes shouted vocals to make some great songs. They also rock hard. I’ll echo SD’s recommendation that you see them live.

On Saturday, I went to the Bay Bridged presented Or, the Whale (myspace) show at the Independent. The Maldives (myspace) and Built for the Sea (myspace) opened. It was the last(ish) Or, the Whale for the summer, so they went all out. But first…

I’d wanted to see Built for the Sea, but unfortunately only arrived in time for their final song.

The Maldives were up next. From Seattle, they’re country rock (or alt-country) in a more traditional sense than Or, the Whale’s sometimes-indieish alt-country. They played a decent set and are obviously talented, but I wasn’t entralled by their set.

By the time Or, the Whale came on there was a pretty decent crowd gathered at the Independent–though, to be fair, the crowd for the Maldives was about as big. Their set was filled with both old and new songs, though it was a lot heavier on the new songs than I’ve seen in the past.

While some of the new songs clicked really well–”Rusty Gold” and “Black Rabbit” in particular were tight, where as some other ones were still finding their place. And they’ve got the older songs in the bag, even “Prayer for the Road”, which I’ve never seen them play live before (and I’ve seen them a number of times.) The show as a whole, though, was great; Or, the Whale really puts on good show on a number of levels. They play well, they have good songs and they have good stage presence. They have a way of getting the audience to have fun.

Last night I saw Jens Lekman and Tig Notaro at the Bottom of the Hill.

I’ve seen Jens a few times before (including at the Bottom of the Hill last year). In the last couple years, it’s clear that Jens, who always was a dynamic performer, has become a consummate performer and showman. Last night was no different and, if anything, was something even more special than I saw before.

But first, I will quickly cover the opener, Tig Notaro. This isn’t a stand up comedy blog, but I can say that her set was pretty funny and I enjoyed it. She particularly interacted with the audience well. Good times.

Back to Jens: seeing him is not like seeing most indie rock performers. “A Postcard to Nina” is a good example of what I’m talking about. Other performers might introduce the song, or tell a quick story behind it, but Jens gives a lengthy tale before and interspersed throughout the song. Quirky details and his sincere, almost innocent, delivery had the audience at turns laughing and engrossed. Either way, we were fully engaged with the performance.

playing the air bells along with the end of “Opposite of Hallelujah”

Playing with a five piece (Jens + violin, bass, drums, keyboards/ samples), he seemed set of playing his ‘hits’ throughout the evening. He played ‘Black Cab’, ‘Maple Leaves’, ‘Your Arms Around Me’ and ‘The Opposite of Hallelujah’ without any complaints from the audience. The band also played a number of new songs. At least in the live setting the songs had a decidedly Paul Simon Graceland* rhythm feel, though not guitar, to them. It reminded me that Jens has unironically covered “You Can Call Me Al” before.

He seemed willing to acknowledge his connection to pop music throughout the set. During “Opposite of Hallelujah” he dipped into “Give Me Just a Little More Time” before coming back to “Opposite” to finish out the songs. During another song, he quoted “Do You Wanna Dance?” in the middle.

When the band re-entered the stage for the encore, he said to the band, “Actually, let’s do that song, but let’s do it really slow tonight” and then played a pretty straight-forward cover of “Water Runs Dry” by Boyz II Men. During the applause he asked if that brought us back to the early 90s and, in a great segue, launched into the Warren G-referencing “Sweet Summer Night on Hammer Hill.”

After the band exited for a second time, the applause wouldn’t stop and Jens came back solo for another encore, playing “Shirin” first and then playing a song he introduced by saying “I haven’t played this in years”. It was a gorgeous version of “Rocky Dennis’ Farewell Song To The Blind Girl.” And that was a beautiful way to end a great set and a really fun show.

*aka Zulu street guitar-style

Last night ipickmynose presented the Wooden Birds (myspace), the Old-Fashioned Way and Goh Nakamura (myspace) at the Rickshaw Stop.

I was looking forward to seeing Goh Nakamura since I’d heard good things about him. With his late-era Elliott Smith-like stylings and a loop pedal at foot, he put on a solid show that veered from soft love song to distorted guitar solo. It was a good set.

I honestly don’t have much to report on the Old-Fashioned Way. They played well enough but their music doesn’t do it for me.

I was really excited about seeing the Wooden Birds–Andrew Kenny of American Analog Set’s new band, which I don’t need to tell you if you’ve been reading this blog. They played great sets at SxSW and I was hoping for a repeat.

Repeat they did. Playing again as a five piece–though with two different percussionists than the last time–their live sound is meticulous and well-balanced, but they still have fun on stage. Running through their album songs, I found myself really absorbed in the songs and the show.

It’s a hard act to describe exactly why I like it so much but I did. This may be a weird way to say it, but in the end, what tells me if I like a live show is how loudly I’m saying ‘yay!’ in my head during the show. Musicianship and song selection and banter and stage presence and audience interaction can all play into that but are themselves secondary to that one metric. ‘Yay!’ was pretty loud during this set.

In total they played almost all of Magnolia and then two American Analog Set ‘covers’–”Aaron and Maria’ and ‘the Kindness of Strangers’. Pretty much all of it was great, but my favorites were those covers plus ‘Bad’ and ‘Anna Paula’.

A couple other notes.

• My friend told Andrew Kenny that he liked the songs the Wooden Birds covered and asked if the band that wrote them was any good. AK: “They’re hit and miss”.
• Andrew Kenny is super nice. He spent a great deal of time after the show behind the merch table signing things and chatting to fans.
• Apparently Steve Wozniak at the show. A couple separate people reported this.

All in all, I was really happy with it. Thanks for coming if you made it there.

Thursday Tuesdsay night, to mark the release of Romanian Names local indie icon John Vanderslice (myspace) played at the Rickshaw Stop[1] with the Morning Benders (myspace) [2].

The Morning Benders were up first. They played some of their older songs, like “Damnit Anna”, but the night seemed to be a time to try out new songs that will be on their next album, Big Echo (which lead singer Chris Chu later told me he had just gotten the mixes back for). As always, the Benders put on a good show, playing a fun set of tunes with plenty of energy.

–

But even with a good set from the Morning Benders, the night was John Vanderslice’s. Sporting his new five piece band for the first time in SF[3], they played what I later told people was a ‘pretty kick ass’ set.

I’ve seen JV as a two-piece, three-piece, four-piece and thirty-piece, but never in this incarnation. The result was a sound that worked really well. With a second guitarist along with keyboards, drums and bass, the sound was fuller and there were more opportunities for melody lines in the instruments. Jason Slota also joined the band on a few of the songs, playing vibraphone and other percussion. I think this may have been one of my favorite Vanderslice live sounds in the many times I’ve seen him.

The set started with the drummer playing alone on stage. JV and the rest joined him slightly afterward. After a few moments, they launched fully into ‘When It Hits My Blood’. After a few songs, the band left the stage and Slota joined Vanderslice on stage for a beautiful version of “Dead Slate Pacific”, one of my favorite JV songs. Slota stayed on the stage and the rest of the band returned. The set was filled with some new songs–around five or six, including one off of Moon Colony Bloodbath–but it also included a lot of material from Cellar Door and Pixel Revolt, as well as a few from other albums. As I was discussing with a friend after the show, both of those albums have heavy bearing on my mind even if I don’t listen to them constantly right now.

All in all a great show.

I wanted to add a couple of auxiliary things here. First, with the sort of day I had yesterday, hectic, leaving me frazzled, I was not thinking I’d have a great time. I thought I might be too distracted. But I had a great time. It’s not every show that can transcend personal circumstances and get you into it, but this one did. Secondly, after the second, Vanderslice had the club play Paul’s Boutique for a “dance party”. People didn’t really dance, but people stayed around and talked and laughed and had a good time. Both Vanderslice and the Morning Benders were chatting with fans and in general can both be credited with fostering a sense of community.

[1] I applaud the Rickshaw Stop for their relatively recent move of hosting (some) all ages shows.

[2] Can I say again how much I love two band bills?

[3] Though I couldn’t make his set at Amoeba on Monday. It’s possible that they all played there.

On Friday I saw the Avett Brothers (myspace) and Magnolia Electric Co. (myspace) at the Fillmore.

Walking into the doorway of the grand room of the Fillmore, past the old greeter and basket of apples and so many photos of old shows that the walls seemed stuff, the strains of Magnolia Electric Co. were already audible. On the stage was Jason Molina leading his current five piece crew. Molina was on guitar and added to that were another guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. The band was playing through some of their immense backlog of songs. They played a great version of “Shiloh Temple Bell”–one of my favorite MECo tunes.

Without a strong stage presence–Molina had almost a formalism to his manner–I feel like the band would work better in a smaller club–like at the Bottom of the Hill in July–but it didn’t carry in a big space like the Fillmore.

There was much jostling and pushing to the front for the headliners, the Avett Brothers. Throughout the set, the crowd was an active and attentive one, cheering, screaming along, throwing fists into the air, from the first song, “Paranoia in B Flat Major”, I believe, on. The two brothers, Scott and Seth, manned roughly the center of the stage, with a banjo plus bass drum and guitar plus hi-hat, respectively. When employing both simultaneously, this required a rocking motion that the brothers seemingly have made into a bit of a dance over the years of playing. This was just one part of their engaging and high energy stage performance. From song to song, they acted as much as inciters as singers and musicians, like creating perfect music was secondary to having a good time, and getting the audience to have a good time.

With their profile raised only somewhat recently, I was surprised that the crowd was quite intense–singing along to and knowing a range of songs from throughout their catalog. There was one clue later on: a loud cheer after a mention of ‘Carolina’. This is still a band with heavy regional roots.

With Seth’s softer edge and more melodious voice acting as counterpoint to Scott’s more raucous vocals and playing (on both banjo and drums), the Brothers have a mixture that bodes well continuing to grow. Their high energy stage performance certainly doesn’t hurt either.

(This is a follow up to Friday’s teaser post.)

As I walked in to see Iron & Wine (myspace) at the Swedish American Hall last Thursday, it was not lost on me that, even though I saw his early tour through the Great American, I had never seen the band in such a small venue. And I probably won’t have another chance.

After a short set from the opener, Magic Leaves, Sam Beam came on stage alone with just his Taylor acoustic guitar. After a short introduction and asking who in the audience had been to the previous night’s show–a few, incidentally–he launched into “Upward Over the Mountain”, a gorgeous song on, and contains the title lyrics to, Creek Drank the Cradle. From there, he went through a set of songs that were from all over his catalog, and even some new songs and ones that were only released in very limited form. You’d think this might be to promote his upcoming rarities compilation but a) the set list was decided by a poll on his website and b) some of the rarities that he played aren’t on that compilation.

Anyway, he played really well and, more than that, he was fully invested in his performance. Let’s be honest–the type of fan that buys tickets the minute they go on sale aren’t the type that needs to be won over, so it can be easy for the artist to give a good-but-not-great performance. Beam was giving 100% here, though he did flub or forget a few words, to the amusement of the audience. He was funny througout–he’s got the banter nailed at this point and it seems he enjoyed the conversation with the audience that was allowed by the small venue.

Besides “Upward Over the Mountain”, other highlights were a sublime version of “Southern Anthem” that included a falsetto line that I’ve never heard before and “Such Great Heights” that produced an almost unreasonably giddy response. The final two + encore were an amazing little part of the set: “Naked as We Came”, “Trapeze Swinger” and “Sodom, South Georgia”. Despite some of my overwhelmingly positive reaction to the show undoubtedly coming from nostalgia, I can say that this was a great show on many levels. Days later I still have a grin on my face when I think about it.

Set list for the 5/7/09 show:

• Upward Over the Mountain*
• Jesus the Mexican Boy
• Woman King
• God Made the Automobile
• Cinder & Smoke
• Peng? [in the printed set list I oversaw but not in my notes]
• Southern Anthem*
• Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car
• Her Tea Leaves
• House By the Sea
• Such Great Heights*
• Bird Stealing Bread
• Godless Brother in Love
• Innocent Bones
• Naked as We Came*
• Trapeze Swinger*
  =encore=
• Sodom, South Georgia*

* there was magic in these.

I’m going away for the weekend so I won’t be able to post a full review or all my photos of the show until Sunday or Monday, but tonight’s Iron & Wine show at the Swedish American Hall was pretty great.

Set list for the 5/7/09 show:

• Upward Over the Mountain*
• Jesus the Mexican Boy
• Woman King
• God Made the Automobile
• Cinder & Smoke
• Peng? [in the printed set list I oversaw but not in my notes]
• Southern Anthem*
• Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car
• Her Tea Leaves
• House By the Sea
• Such Great Heights*
• Bird Stealing Bread
• Godless Brother in Love
• Innocent Bones
• Naked as We Came*
• Trapeze Swinger*
  =encore=
• Sodom, South Georgia*

* there was magic in these.

Update: I posted my full review.