Well, that was all a bit strange.
I have to admit from the off that I’m not hugely familiar with Sam Beam’s recorded output, having only recently got into him through this year’s excellent Kiss Each Other Clean album, so I will be vague – if not totally ignorant – about what songs were performed. Not that it matters, as it was an excellent show performed impeccably, but more on that later. What is immediately apparent is that I need more Iron & Wine albums, and am more than quite happy to now know this.
Crap traffic and an even crapper driver (me, for I have no sense of direction. I could get lost in a cupboard) meant that I arrived slightly late, meaning that I sadly missed the start of Daniel Martin Moore’s set. I arrived somewhere near the beginning of That’ll Be the Plan, and I was drawn immediately into the show, Daniel’s voice and songwriting charm being more than capably backed by his band, which ebbed and floweed on and off the stage as each song demanded – full backing for the aforementioned …Plan and set-closer Dark Road, sole piano behind the excellent In the Cool of the Day and on his own for Flyrock Blues, meaning that the set (and introduction to the artist for a decent-sized section of the attentive audience) was incredibly varied in scope, winning over many a new fan in the process. And those who weren’t completely won over by the music were charmed by the tale of his newly-bought teamug from Portmeirion, home of The Prisoner, during which he was called – and happily admitted to being – a nerd as this anecdote continued along the lines of wondering if he was going to step offstage and right back into The Village. Not your usual onstage banter then (especially when mixed with his explanation of Mountaintop Removal mining practices as a precursor to Flyrock Blues), and the place was all the better for it.
And what was the most heart-warming from all this was hearing snippets of conversations at the end of the set, mostly along the lines of “See? I told you so…” – it’s brilliant to see that word of mouth and the willingness to listen to something that isn’t the usual flavour of the month can put a surprised smile on some of even the most hardened hipsters who had turned up for this, giving louder and warmer rounds of applause with each successive song.
Looking at a couple of online thoughts on last night’s headline act, it seems as if a lot of people didn’t get exactly what they expected. As someone who had no idea what was supposed to happen, I could soak it all up quite happily, somewhat amazed by the spectacle taking place on the stage.
And what was taking place was evangelically funky. The band that the impeccably-suited and groomed Sam brought with him were all very accomplished musicians, and their not inconsiderable talents were utilised to the full during a set that took in a huge array of styles and twists as they applied themselves to his songs. Folky vocal harmonies mixed with jaunty African rhythms and heavy jazz arrangements and OK Computeresque guitar passages (possibly literally in this last instance – I’m sure I heard a snippet of Lucky in the grandiose middle of one song) were the order of the day, apparently confusing many who had turned up for a nice little acoustic set, and certainly stunning most of this sell-out show to statuesque immobility.
This non-movement of the crowd was certainly not lost on the band, with Sam mentioning very early on that he’d never seen so many people not move, followed later on with an exclamation of “You guys can dance, and I saw you!” and a round of applause which was warm and without sarcasm – he was having fun, and just wanted everyone else to join in a bit. This continued right the way through, with Walking Far From Home (I know some of them, at least!) having to be restarted after a short fit of giggles when it was obvious that nobody was joining in.
Given that the new material is quite heavy on band involvement and carries a very definite musical stamp, it probably made sense to mould the set around this, and it will be interesting for me to get into the older material and see what bits I can pick out as being performed at this show – and this show has certainly piqued my interest into getting into his back-catalogue as soon as possible. Where it seems to have been a bit of a culture shock for some people, it was an eye-opener for me.
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