After a long delay, the late summer string of shows is on. Along with the hectic concert schedule came a crazy busy personal and work schedule, which equals being way behind on blogging about said shows. So let’s get started.
Two weeks ago now (I think) we hit up the Phosphorescent show at Southgate House. I’m quite thankful for the late weeknight starts at this place. Much easier to make a 9 PM show during the week than a 7 PM show… however staying fully awake ‘till the end can be a struggle for my rapidly aging ass. Based on the activity in the front bar it appeared to be a relatively adequate crowd for a weeknight. As we made our way into the Ballroom however we found ourselves as 2 of about 8 people waiting there only fifteen minutes before the opener was supposed to start. We obviously had no troubles getting a table in near the center of the balcony amongst the sparse population. What we found were that we were actually “early”. The opener didn’t make his appearance until around 9:30 or maybe even later.
That at least gave us the opportunity to enjoy a few drinks and enjoy one of our other favorite activities… people watching (and subsequent unjust judgment and criticism of said watched individuals). The rest of the still small crowd filtered in as we waited, including a young girl who we saw get dropped off from her father’s Audi just outside the venue. She walked over to the Levee (we suspected to satisfy a story that she was “going to the movies”) until her father was out of sight and then scurried back across the street to meet a friend and an older ‘boy’ to enter the show with.
So finally onto the opener. Doug Paisley lightly announced himself to the room of 20 spectators with some gentle finger picking and a soft southern voice. He brought a pleasant, yet forgettable sound to the stage as most of his solo songs seemed to run together. About halfway through his set he was joined by a fiddle playing female who leant her beautiful voice in harmonization with Paisley’s. While these two together produced the most soothing sounds of the set together, the real entertainment didn’t start ‘till this guy came to the stage…
Mr. Will Oldham (aka Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – yes I had to Wiki him on my phone) who is apparently a very well known folk artist there in the Commonwealth was simply a statue of visual entertainment to us. We grinned and gave each other the “Matty O. look” as his ill shaped frame attempted to concurrently sing the lyrics Paisley had scratched down on paper for him to reference. While in theory he might have thought it a great idea to share the stage with this “legend”, it could not have produced the unified sound Paisley was desiring. It did however produce a lot of “pft’s” and nasal laughs as Mr. Oldham sang overtop of Paisley and with less than perfect timing. While I sit here critical of the performance they put together audibly, I certainly was amused by the whole situation.
Following Paisley’s set was a long wait for Phosphorescent. They are an eclectic group to say the least. You certainly get the sense that they are true “artists” in more than a matter of career choice. A mindset that lends itself to the “we’ll just go on stage whenever” attitude… which is what they did. For not needing any additional sound check or instrument adjustments, they took an excruciating amount of time in getting their set started. As the crowd built to maybe around 50 people we anticipated Phosphorescent prefacing their set talking about the recent theft of all of their equipment after a show in NYC that led to the cancellation of a few other dates and nearly this one. Fortunately their U-Haul was recovered two days prior with all of their gear still intact. With that said, we were utterly surprised that they didn’t even mention it throughout the whole show.
Sooooo… without real introduction the band came on and crept instrumentally into a stalling opening while waiting on the bass player to make it to the stage with a few extra beers in hand. With all members now in place, front man Matthew Houck opened his mouth to spill out the cryptic sounds of a young Willie Nelson. (For more on this comparison and an in depth visual description of the band, see my previous David Gray show post.) Between the first and second songs Houck spoke of the whole band’s influence from Nelson citing the LP of his songs named “To Willie”. What followed were seriously moving renditions of “To Sick to Pray” and the gorgeous “It’s Not Supposed to Be That Way” (which I am again obsessed with).
It’s odd to witness a somewhat national act that is so overwhelmingly and openly obsessed with another artist in this manner… refreshingly honest though. I’m sure there were other “Willie” tracks mixed in with the remainder of their originals that I did not recognize, but Houck sings in such a haunted Nelson-like style that you wouldn’t really know.
The show continued showing off the bands individual and collective talents including some beautifully crafted harmonies, finally culminating in an amazing instrumental jam fest sometime in the 1 o’clock hour… my tiredness at that hour reminding me of the age that keeps chasing me. Where does all the energy go? Anyway, I digress… I can’t wait to see this amazing live sound again that they can’t seem to capture in the studio. Some bands are just “live bands” and this is one of them. If you get your chance, don’t miss it. They will be worth the small price of admission and the lengthy wait.
PS – Thanks to Keith Klenowski for the photos I “stole”, um “borrowed”. His are much better than mine.
