Laura Veirs and The Hall Of Fames, The Jazz Cafe, 16/08/10

I was at the Jazz Cafe in Camden last night to see American singer Laura Veirs and her current backing band The Hall Of Fames. My last visit to the Jazz Cafe was in 2000 and I had forgotten what a lovely little venue it is. Quite different in terms of its layout and intimate in size.

‘July Flame’ is currently emphatically winning the race to be my favourite album of 2010. It is such a beautiful, accomplished, mellifluous collection of indie-folk-guitar songs with impossibly pretty vocals. I love the breadth of moods conveyed – from the wistful, bittersweet melancholia of songs like ‘I Can See Your Tracks’ and ‘Little Deschutes’, to the unbridled, sunny optimism of ‘Summer Is The Champion’. I have to confess that I don’t really know much more of her music. I had been meaning to pick up a few more of her albums before this show but failed to do so. Disorganisation. (#epicfail)

 Last night she started with the ‘Sun Is King’ and in amongst some older songs played more than half of ‘July Flame’ – the main set also included ‘Life Is Good Blues’, ‘Silo Song’, ‘When You Give Your Heart’, ‘Wide-Eyed, Legless’ and ‘Carol Kaye’ and the album title track. The live versions were maybe a little less polished than those on the album, yet still retained the warmth, occasional sense of sadness and quietly affecting qualities.

Sometimes the sheer volume of some of the vocals threatened to be too overpowering but on the whole they were soft and well-delivered. Towards the end of the set guitarist Karl Blau led one of his own compositions ‘That’s How I Got To Memphis’, an up-tempo countrified song involving the audience on backing vocals.

She ended the main set at the piano, playing album closer ‘Make Something Good’, which is a nice example of one of my favourite things in music – a female lead vocal complemented by male backing vocals. Some of my other favourite tracks that fall into this category (off the top of my head) are ‘Car Wheels On A Gravel Road’ by Lucinda Williams (featuring backing vocals from Steve Earle), Emmy Lou Harris covering ‘Wrecking Ball’ and ‘Sweet Old World’ by Neil Young (featuring the man himself on backing vocals) and ‘What You Said’ by Laura Cantrell (featuring backing vocals by Joey Burns from Calexico). There are probably others that I can’t quite recall at the moment but they all sound wonderful, helped by the reversal of the familiar roles…

For the encore she played ‘I Can See Your Tracks’ and ‘Secret Someones’ to round off a very enjoyable show. Well done Laura and band.

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, Camden Electric Ballroom, 23/03/10

On Tuesday evening I was at the Electric Ballroom in Camden to see Canadian post-apocalyptic chamber-rock ensemble Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra. I had seen them play the Union Chapel way back in 2001 when they were still a Godspeed You! Black Emperor side project.

On Tuesday their line up consisted of electric guitar, double bass, two violins and drums. The show demonstrated the extent to which they have changed their sound from purely instrumental chamber-post-rock to a louder, song-based sound bordering on alternative rock (albeit a wayward, ragged version).

They opened with ‘I Built Myself A Metal Bird’ which segued into ‘I Fed My Metal Bird The Wings Of Other Metal Birds’, the electric violin playing out jagged, blistering riffs over Efrim’s cracked, raw vocals. ‘There Is A Light’ followed with it’s slow-building accumulations of orchestrated intensity. 'God Bless Our Dead Marines' with its beautiful, closing vocal refrain was a highlight. They closed their main set with an epic version of current album closer ‘Piphany Rambler’ and a spinetinglingly good ‘A Million Died To Make This Sound’. They played ‘Microphones In The Trees’ as an encore. Overall, a very good gig indeed which seemed to get better the longer they played. I got the moments of super-charged intensity that I went there hoping for.

Throughout the set Efrim engaged in occasionally entertaining dialogue with the crowd. His first attempt went something like this:

Efrim: “So, does anyone have anything to say?”

Voice from crowd: “Bring back Godspeed!”
Efrim: “Aww, man....you fuckin’ bring back Godspeed…..it’s not hard….only 4 chords and a looong runway….”

Lots of similar examples (that I can’t quite fully remember) cropped up throughout the evening, including a 'Save 6 Music' shout from a member of the crowd. I don’t remember Efrim being so laconic during his GYBE days...

He dedicated ‘A Million Died…’ to Nina Simone, Joe Strummer & Arthur Lee amongst many others and invited members of the crowd to suggest others. Mark Linkous got a shout as did Alex Chilton (but Efrim failed to hear that one).

Set List

I Built Myself A Metal Bird

I Fed My Metal Bird The Wings Of Other Metal Birds
There Is A Light

God Bless Our Dead Marines

‘Piphany Rambler

A Million Died To Make This Sound

Microphones In The Trees

My pre-gig iPod Playlist:

Tindersticks ‘Falling Down A Mountain’

Vladislav Delay ‘Tummaa’
Nico Muhly ‘Mothertongue’