When I last saw Iron & Wine live, at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby, PA (outside of Philadelphia), Sam Beam was drowning. His face was covered by an enormous beard and even more enormous head of hair, and his songs were swallowed up in dense layers of instrumentation. He was surrounded by what seemed like a dozen other musicians on stage, and his interactions with the crowd were minimal at best. Yelling out requests for classic songs seems common at Iron & Wine concerts (and really, at anyone else's, too), but Beam would only occasionally respond to these shouts of old song titles with mumbled remarks like "That's one" and "That's another one." While the show itself was great, it felt like Beam was retreating into himself, hiding from his audience with as many outward layers of other...stuff...as he could muster.
The sold-out Radio City Music Hall saw a very different Sam Beam. Beard and hair trimmed short, he walked out on stage in a suit and minimal ensemble - a banjo player, a pianist, and two backup singers. The crowd greeted him warmly, and Beam asked possibly the greatest opening line I've ever heard at a rock show:
"Are you ready to get fucking mellow?"
The band began with straightforward arrangements of "He Lays in the Reins," found on Beam's 2005 collaboration with Calexico, and new song "Half Moon." I say "straightforward" because the band has developed a reputation for playing wildly different live versions from those found on the studio albums, especially since the tour supporting 2007's The Shepherd's Dog. Thus, after playing a more ominous "Fever Dream" and stripped-down, saxophone-less "Big Burned Hand," Beam thanked the audience for appreciating the new arrangements, adding, "A song should be a living thing," possibly a response to fans who gripe about deviations from note-for-note renditions of Our Endless Numbered Days.
Beam seemed to be in a great mood, joking with the crowd in a style reminiscent of the late Mitch Hedberg. After someone yelled a request for a song I couldn't hear (but I'm guessing was "Freebird"), Beam laughed and said, "Are you serious? Get that shit out of here. Do you eat the same thing every day? This is New York!"
After performing the always pretty "My Lady's House," he invited another six musicians on stage - a saxophone/flute, baritone sax, trumpet, bass, and two drummers - to complete the rest of his band. Beam was not about to be overwhelmed by this ensemble, though. He stood confidently front-and-center, with the band arrayed in a semi circle behind him. Despite the large backing band, Beam carried himself with an easygoing swagger, a frontman fully in control of the show. It was a display of tremendous growth as a performer from his days of whispering confessionals into a home demo recorder.
Throughout the beginning of the set I had been talking about capturing some of the show on my iPhone. So, as the band started to play the most upbeat rock n roll I've ever heard from Iron & Wine, my wife whispered, "Maybe you should record this one, whatever it is." As the vocals came in, we looked at each other in shock - they were playing "Love and Some Verses," the song we danced to at our wedding just six months ago, and at first neither of us recognized it.
The alternate arrangements did not stop there. The audience was treated to a Caribbean-flavored "House by the Sea," a reverb-heavy dirge of "Sea and the Rhythm," and a lounge-style "Cinder and Smoke." Overall they sounded great, particularly Kiss Each Other Clean b-side "Summer in Savannah." Next to the song's name on the setlist I was writing, my only note was "epic."
After the band left the stage, Beam returned for a solo encore. He asked the audience whether they wanted to hear "the short one or the long one." Of course the universal response was for the long one, yielding a heartwarming and poignant performance of "The Trapeze Swinger."
This was my first concert at Radio City, and I have to say the sound there is absolutely fantastic. The only odd moment of the night was when opener Edie Brickell answered a text message during her set. (In her defense, it was from her daughter, asking whether Brickell could drive her to a friend's house later. "After about five songs," Brickell announced to the audience.)
Here's the entire setlist:
He Lays in the Reins
Half Moon
Fever Dream
Big Burned Hand
My Lady's House
Naked As We Came
--full ensemble introduced--
Tree by the River
Love and Some Verses
House by the Sea
The Sea and the Rhythm
Me and Lazarus
Summer in Savannah
Boy with a Coin
Rabbit Will Run
Glad Man Singing
Cinder and Smoke
--band leaves for solo encore--
The Trapeze Swinger
What do you think about artists playing alternate versions of their songs? Would you rather hear a song similar to the way it was recorded, or do you prefer to hear a new rendition?
Iron & Wine performed selections from their upcoming record, Kiss Each Other Clean, for NPR's First Listen series. Host John Schaefer said the band played the album in its entirety front-to-back, but I don't think that's what actually happened. The performance starts off with "Tree By the River," listed everywhere as track 3. The band did not play leadoff single "Walking Far From Home" single, but did play b-side "Biting Your Tail." So while it's probably not the entire album, it's still a nice sample of what to expect on January 25.
1. "Tree by the River"
2. "Big Burned Head"
3. "Biting Your Tail"
4. "Half Moon"
5. "Monkeys Uptown"
6. "Mouth of the River"
7. "Summer in Savannah"
8. "Godless Brother in Love"
9. "Rabbit Will Run"
10. "Me and Lazarus"
11. "Boy With a Coin"
12. "Naked As We Came"
As part of Record Store Day's Back to Black Friday event, Iron & Wine have released "Walking Far From Home," the leadoff single from the band's new album Kiss Each Other Clean (due on January 25, 2011). Vinyl and CD versions are available exclusively at independent record stores starting today. Digital downloads will be available on November 30, 2010. My wife and I rushed off to a record store almost 20 miles away to luckily snatch up the last vinyl copy in stock.
"Walking Far From Home" track list:
1. Walking Far From Home
2. Summer in Savannah
3. Biting Your Tail
A quick look at the song titles for Kiss Each Other Clean reveals that Sam Beam is still preoccupied with religious metaphors, animals,and rivers. However, if the new single is any indication of the upcoming album's sound, Kiss Each Other Clean is going to be an even bigger departure than The Shepherd's Dog was. Structured a bit like "The Trapeze Swinger" (only in that neither song has a true chorus), the title track leads off with distorted vocals and guitars before breaking into gospel-tinged backing ooh-ooh-ahh's. The single's b-sides veer into R&B territory, and Beam actually lets his voice elevate beyond a whisper. "Summer in Savannah" employs saxophone and synths, while "Biting Your Tail" dabbles with electronica. It's astonishing (my wife accidentally put side B on first, and our necks snapped in each other's direction as "Summer in Savannah" began), but somehow it all works.
Kiss Each Other Clean track list:
1. Walking Far From Home
2. Me And Lazarus
3. Tree By The River
4. Monkeys Uptown
5. Half Moon
6. Rabbit Will Run
7. Godless Brother In Love
8. Big Burned Hand
9. Glad Man Singing
10. Your Fake Name Is Good Enough For Me
Welcome! For a while, I've been thinking about starting a music blog, but there's been one seemingly insurmountable obstacle: I could not think of a title!
My first idea was to simulate a record label, something like Rewind Records. I'd been listening to some of the albums I loved as a teenager, so I had an idea to start a blog featuring exclusively older releases. However, I spend far too much of my time looking for new music, so I knew that the "rewind" idea would never last. I tried coming up with other [Something] Records titles, but nothing else resonated like the original. My fiancee suggested I abandon anything having to do with "Records," since, after all, I'm not creating anything. (Ouch, right?)
Instead, she started pitching song lyrics as blog titles. Her favorite artist is Iron & Wine, so of course every suggestion was from one of their songs. Finally, she suggested one that sounded as good to me as it did to her: "Given and taken in ink," a line from "History of Lovers," a collaboration between Iron & Wine and Calexico on their In the Reins EP [2005].
The problem here is obvious: If we ever get divorced, I have to change the blog title. If I'm willing to take that risk, it should suggest how serious I am about this thing. (Hmm. I think I just wrote my half of the vows...)
What you can expect from this blog:
I love music, I like to write, and I like to share the music I find with other people. I'll do my best to post links to actual song files when I can, but I don't really know how other music blogs coordinate this. I assume they have FTP servers and permission from artists (or at least a posted agreement to honor any requests of copyright-owners to take anything down). It'd be great if I could get artists/labels to send me CDs/mp3s for promotional purposes, and from my time as a radio DJ I have some sense of how this is accomplished. However, I currently do not have any such relationships. As a result, for now my posting of mp3s will probably be somewhat limited. In the meantime, I'll try to link to other blogs also featuring these artists, YouTube videos, or online distributors. Sometimes, you'll just have to take my word for it that these songs are awesome.
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