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March 17, 2006
broken pews and one unused balcony
Adam & Alden at First Unitarian Church Chapel, Philadelphia, March 13th:
1-4. Unknown
5. Untitled (one of the ones performed on CKUT)
6-8. Unknown
9. Leaving Blues
10. Klezmer song
11. Sailing Ship on the Ocean
12. Unknown
13. Africa No Who
14. Bladerunner
15. Electric Puddles
16. Unknown
Encore
17. Unknown
18. Tears (Django Reinhardt cover)
19. Untitled ('sugar in my bones')
(*A lot of this set list is both speculative and non-sequential; I think they may have played even more songs)
There's no really easy way to put into words what Adam and Alden do; while they were working their way through 'Bladerunner' ("it's a song from the future", said Adam), I was leaning back into one of the creaking pews and trying to think of an accurate description of their music and the way the two interacted on stage. There were details that stood out, of course: the mutual concentration on and anticipation of the movement of fingers, the contrasting styles of dance (Alden is a groover, Adam is more of a writher), Alden's furrowed brow, Adam's stuck-out tongue, etc. This might seem overly simplistic and maybe more than a little bizarre, but what their playing reminded me of most is a sort of ridiculously obscure Disney short from 1935 called "Music Land" (don't ask how I know this cartoon), where the Land of Symphony-
-engages the Isle of Jazz in a musical war
To draw another equally strange comparison, I will say that listening to them play was like having the odd grammar of brutely split infinitives translated to music- there were moments in their songs that seemed designed to [rococoly, charmingly, sadly] ensnare, to [bluegrassily, humourously, technically] entertain, to [angrily, dandily, royally] sympathize, etc. (you get the picture). I think Alden said it best when talking to the crowd after the show- someone had said that one of the reasons they enjoyed the music was because it was so structured, which Alden agreed with, saying that there was definitely a lot of 'deliberation' in their songs, but that what he and Adam tried to do was "create a landscape but still leave room to paint the open spaces". And it was evident during the show that oftentimes one of them would hold steady while the other did his own thing- thrillingly, gorgeously improvising intricate patterns or sets of long, mournful tones.
As was the case with the Grizzly Bear and Soft Circle show back in the fall, the church's chapel served as an ideal setting- it is, after all, a room made almost entirely of old, solid wood. The acoustics were actually good enough so that Alden was able to sing the final song of the night ('sugar/rubber in my bones'- I don't know a better title for this song) without a mic, and his soft voice easily carried throughout the room- over both his guitar and the light plucks and sweeps of Adam's violin.
I was weirdly proud of the fact that, unlike what happened at Islands' first Philly concert, no one in the small crowd (which was apparently capped at 50 people) casually accosted the band with requests for 'Tuff Ghost' or 'Les Os'; when Adam asked part of the audience if they had come to the show that night expecting to hear Unicorns material, everyone vehemently shook their heads 'no' (although I doubt anyone would have admitted to such a thing, particularly when the quesiton was posed by 1/2 of the performing act).
It was a fantastic and insanely fun show, and I'm so glad that they decided to come to Philly to play. Alden mentioned at the end of the show that they've been trying to record all of their live performances for a record- they'd like to mix the live stuff in with some more acoustic work they've done, and with some of the material they recorded at a 'huge, empty concert hall'. Somebody also asked about the soundtrack for "The Hamster Cage", and Alden said that he's almost all done with it, and that it should be out some time in July (hopefully).
Other stuff (these are like the deleted scenes from the concert review):
The song 'Leaving Blues' was prefaced by a short discussion by both Adam and Alden. Alden first said simply that the song was about New Orleans, and Adam expounded a little by mentioning the telephone interview with mayor Ray Nagin (when he breaks down on air) was something that everyone should hear. Alden went on to talk about the fact that many of the people who were uprooted by the hurricane and had no place to live were going back- despite there often being no institutions in place to help them, they were going back to rebuild. The song itself is both intensely heartrending and slightly hopeful.
Adam gave everyone a short lesson on klezmer music, explaining how the introduction "called a doyna", was traditionally very slow and sort of pastoral, and then the other part was usually more in the mode of a wedding song.
After they'd finished playing, Alden announced that since they had 'no shit for sale', they'd be glad to say hi to everyone out in the foyer of the chapel. About 15 people stuck around (my 3 younger brothers and myself included) to talk. It was a fun discussion, and both Adam and Alden were extremely kind and generous with their time- answering questions from everyone and talking about the Montreal music scene versus the New York scene (they feel NYC leans more towards the abstract- "they're less concerned with harmony", Adam said), how the previous tour dates had gone (apparently things were not great (at first) in Burlington, where they got booted off stage after 5 songs and ended up moving the show to another venue, where they played for another hour), and originality in pop music (Alden eventually said that he thought the word 'pop' was so vague- "it's just a palindrome").
One of the best parts of the night came at the very end though, when everyone was leaving. As Adam and Alden were packing up their gear, people lined up to say goodbye, very politely and sincerely thanking both of them for coming to play and for playing so much amazing music so passionately and enthusiatically. It was pleasantly surprising to see an audience (or a large portion of one, at least) that was so honestly grateful for the performance that they felt almost compelled to personally express it to the performers themselves. Maybe it's not that rare a thing to have happen, but it was definitely remarkable and it ended the night in just the right way.
Posted by Kevin at March 17, 2006 01:23 AM