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August 18, 2006
Visit to the crayon depot
A Sunny Day in Glasgow, at the Khyber in Philly (on August 3rd):
1. Laughter
2. A Mundane Phone Call to Jack Parsons
3. Ghost in the Graveyard
4. Horn Song
5. Fabulous Friend
6. Best Summer Ever
The Khyber is a place I've written about before, a sweaty little box in the old section of the city that's played host to some of the best shows I've seen in Philly- a perfect spot for the band's second show ever. They were the openers and they started early (as promised); started playing, in fact, without any kind of warning at all. It was a simple set-up, with Ben (guitar, effects, vocals) sort of isolated on the far left and his sisters Lauren and Robin grouped together in the middle-right part of the stage, taking turns playing the keyboard/laptop and managing the various percussion changes. Okay-
So as gorgeous as these songs are on record, they sound even better live- the songs breathe easier and heartbeat harder (if that makes sense) when performed by the people responsible: Ben spooling out whorls of bright noise from his guitar, Lauren singing with her eyes closed tightly, Robin singing, playing keyboard, and rocking her hips back and forth, the three of them clearly very much involved in the songs themselves. There were a handful of barely discernible rough spots in the set (marked mostly by smiles and quick glances between the siblings), but that just made the show that much more charming and entertaining. Both of the unreleased songs ('Ghost in the Graveyard', 'The Horn Song' (listen to it here)) were jaw-droppingly good- the former is a guitar squall, the most shoegazey of all the band's songs, violent and extremely pretty, and the latter is such a tiny, filigreed thing, a short poem carved into a little block of Brazilian rosewood, placed on your palm. The Field Mice cover ('Fabulous Friend'), sung by Lauren (if I remember correctly) was pretty spectacular as well, particularly the way she sang the line: "I'm not brave, I'm not special, I'm not any of those things", which has stuck with me since then (one of those indelible concert moments). 'Best Summer Ever' though was where they really just nailed it- everything came together so well, those rippling, incandescent waves of guitar and crisp beats matched up perfectly with Lauren's warm and airy vocals- when the band finished, people in the crowd were smiling, obviously happy to have been there.
[photos are from the band's website]
You can see A Sunny Day in Glasgow play at the Fire in Philly a week from today, at 9 p.m. (get there early). "The Sunniest Day Ever" EP is still available on the band's site for low, low prices.
P.S. new track from Portugal coming soon, new track from Norway after that.
Posted by Kevin at August 18, 2006 07:02 AM