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shewhomustLast night the talented and generous Gail-Nina used her magic power of obtaining tickets, and took me to the Sage to see Iron & Wine. I knew very little about the band: I'd come across them in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
matociquala's LJ, found a track or so on line, enjoyed what I heard enough to buy the Woman King CD and was glad of the opportunity to hear them live...
Most of the live music events I go to are in folk clubs; they do things differently at the Sage (and at rock venues generally, I suspect). I'd forgotten the convention that there must be a support act, but that it is uncool to turn up and hear them, with the result that the real business of the evening starts much later than advertised. Support for Iron & Wine was Alexi Murdoch, (about whom I know nothing but that he seems to move in exalted circles), who gave us half an hour of his own songs, more than competent though all very similar in mood. After he had warmed up the audience, we had an interval to cool off again while people bustled around the stage making all the usual preparations with guitar stands and microphones - and a clean white towel by each position. I don't know what these were for, they remained untouched throughout the evening.
Finally Iron & Wine came on. I knew so little about them that I didn't even know how many performers to expect: Sam Beam could have come on solo for all I knew - but there was the evidence of those seven white towels... And the two drumkits, a xylophone, various microphones and a piano tucked so neatly into the side of the stage that I never did see who was playing it. But the music was fascinating - or this could just be my ignorance, that I was constantly looking from musician to musician, wondering where the different sounds were coming from: was that plaintive wailing the violin, or the horizontal stringed instrument on the right? And what was that percussive effect? Only one complaint, which is that the voice was mixed further back than I would have liked (and, listening both the my CD and to other samples around the internet, further back than in the band's recordings).
Without audible lyrics, the sound was mellow - and I don't mean that in a bad way, though it is not, for me, a term of unqualified praise. It seemed to come together more as the evening progressed, and by the time the performance ended, the band were really hitting their stride.
matociquala's LJ, found a track or so on line, enjoyed what I heard enough to buy the Woman King CD and was glad of the opportunity to hear them live...Most of the live music events I go to are in folk clubs; they do things differently at the Sage (and at rock venues generally, I suspect). I'd forgotten the convention that there must be a support act, but that it is uncool to turn up and hear them, with the result that the real business of the evening starts much later than advertised. Support for Iron & Wine was Alexi Murdoch, (about whom I know nothing but that he seems to move in exalted circles), who gave us half an hour of his own songs, more than competent though all very similar in mood. After he had warmed up the audience, we had an interval to cool off again while people bustled around the stage making all the usual preparations with guitar stands and microphones - and a clean white towel by each position. I don't know what these were for, they remained untouched throughout the evening.
Finally Iron & Wine came on. I knew so little about them that I didn't even know how many performers to expect: Sam Beam could have come on solo for all I knew - but there was the evidence of those seven white towels... And the two drumkits, a xylophone, various microphones and a piano tucked so neatly into the side of the stage that I never did see who was playing it. But the music was fascinating - or this could just be my ignorance, that I was constantly looking from musician to musician, wondering where the different sounds were coming from: was that plaintive wailing the violin, or the horizontal stringed instrument on the right? And what was that percussive effect? Only one complaint, which is that the voice was mixed further back than I would have liked (and, listening both the my CD and to other samples around the internet, further back than in the band's recordings).
Without audible lyrics, the sound was mellow - and I don't mean that in a bad way, though it is not, for me, a term of unqualified praise. It seemed to come together more as the evening progressed, and by the time the performance ended, the band were really hitting their stride.
