"a tattoo of a flower on a broken wrist" Iron & Wine, Howard Assembly Rooms, Leeds 12.9.10

It’s only in the past month or two that I’ve really dived into Iron & Wine’s (or Sam Beam, as his mum knows him) back catalogue, having purchased the rather wonderful and eclectic ‘The Shepherd’s Dog’ last year, I noticed that he was playing a couple of dates in the UK and thought some further investigation was called for. In those two months, two EP’s, two albums and one two disc collection of B-Sides, Demos etc. have been purchased (all though eBay, still with change from a tenner!). Listening through each of the records, there certainly is a notable progression, an increase in fidelity from ‘The Creek Drank The Cradle’ to ‘Our Endless Numbered Days’, the introduction of a full band set up from that to ‘Woman King’ and ‘In The Reins’ (the latter being a split with Calexico) EP’s, then the expansion of that sound on ‘The Shepherds Dog’.

The set drew largely from ‘…Endless…’ and ‘…Dog’ a virtually a capella ‘Flightless Bird, American Mouth’, and a plaintive ‘Each Coming Night’ (opening and closing the set, respectively) left me somewhat dumbfounded, as did the 9 minute epic that is ‘The Trapeze Swinger’.


Iron & Wine - The Trapeze Swinger

Unfortunately, it’s not yet possible to judge the progression from ‘...Dog’ to any of the new material from the forthcoming ‘Kiss Each Other Clean’, as the current set up is incredibly stripped back; an acoustic guitar, and accompaniment from, by turns, piano, accordion and some superb slide guitar. During one of the three new songs that is aired, Beam forgets the lyrics (and the title), as he does during ‘Love Song of the Buzzard’ which does, as his says himself “have a lot of words in it…” these are the only points during a set which flies by, where he falters, and even then, it’s rather endearing. Hopefully he’ll come back around early next year, when ‘Kiss Each Other Clean’ is released, and if he does, I’ll be there.

Tremendous!

On a more personal note, it was nice to finally go to The Grand in Leeds, which Howard Assembly Rooms is part of, we had planned to go and see The Mighty Boosh there on 8th December 2008, but were sadly, otherwise engaged.

" Are they American Pants?" Megafaun & Caitlin Rose, The Band Room, Farndale 29.8.10

Megafaun at the Band Room. Picture courtesy of the band's tumblr page

In the months since tickets were bought (largely on the insistence of the Mrs) for this, I had become less and less bothered by my impending third visit to the band room (and the second to see Megafaun there), largely due to the fact that, as good as Megafaun’s ‘Gather, Form and Fly’ is, it just doesn’t pull me in, it’s not a record I’ve been back to very often since I first happened across it last year. But then, to my surprise it was announced that a certain Caitlin Rose would, for one night only, be playing with them, which made me very bothered about it indeed.


Her (drummerless) band’s set draws chiefly from her debut LP ‘Own Side Now’. , ‘For the Rabbits’, ‘Spare Me’ and the title track shining particularly brightly. At the tender age of 23, the fact that she’s already penned songs as well crafted as these suggests she could be capable of breaking through, perhaps not into the mainstream, but certainly to a much larger audience than tonight’s.

I had clearly forgotten just how much I had enjoyed seeing Megafaun here back in December, and once again, they did not disappoint. Addressing the crowd like old friends, and clearly feeling at home, their set was comparatively lacking in the segues of ‘Gather, Form & Fly’ and the last time they played here. ‘The Longest Day’ had me, once again, on the brink of tears, and, as it did 9 months ago ‘Worried Mind’ provokes a mass sing-along. And then another, as the band come back on stage for their encore, the crowd sings refrain back at them, and you can tell, you can just tell, they’ll be back here again soon.

"...it's biological..." The Low Anthem, Pocklington Arts Centre 27.8.10

Mountain Man, tonight’s support, are a female three piece from disparate corners of the States, all of which, we’re assured are (adopts barely audible voice) “really nice places, yeh”. From the moment they take the stage, approach the three mics and join hands, it is clear that I am not going to enjoy this. Technically, their a capella folk songs are very good, but they’re just a little too fey, a bit too folksy for my tastes, a fact which only becomes clearer by the fact that one of their songs features the line “two fair maidens”. Really?

The Low Anthem’s second album, last year’s magnificently titled ‘Oh My God. Charlie Darwin.’ is at times rather disjointed, moving from americana to blues to folk, live, that variety is still present but seems somehow more coherent. Part of what first attracted me to The Low Anthem was how atmospheric their recent work is, and seeing just how that was done, particularly the use of a singing saw, is fascinating. According to a press release, a total of 27 instruments were used on ‘OMGCD’, and many of them grace the rather small Pocklington Arts Centre stage, it becomes, at times, rather hard to keep track of what’s going on, instruments are swapped, and swapped again, the stage becomes a veritable log jam.

Before launching into ‘This Goddamn House’ from 2007’s ‘What the Crow Brings’, Ben Knox Miller makes a rather bizarre request, that someone phone their neighbours mobile, and put both on speaker phone, then give them to him (slightly convoluted way to steal someone’s phone?), he then whistled into the mic, moving the phones about, a strange, slightly ethereal cricket-like chirping/sound of the sea rings throughout the room, leaving my jaw firmly planted on the floor.

One thing I was not prepared for, considering who we were watching, was just how loud they were, ‘The Horizon is a Beltway’ and the Kerouac/Waits (two men whose works have clearly heavily influenced the band) penned ‘Home I’ll Never Be’ are amped up to buggery, pushing both Miller’s and multi instrumentalist Jocie Adams’ voices to their very limit. ‘To Ohio’ and ‘(Don’t) Tremble’ give them time to recover (and are even more beautiful than on record) before a barnstorming, and rather daft rendition of ‘There’s a Hole in My Bucket’. As we file out onto the mean streets of Pocklington, I had a realisation, The Low Anthem are one of the best live bands I have seen, and then I had another… They do this shit every night!

The only low point ; Everything Everthing playing York Stereo on the same day. Pfft