Venue: Tractor Tavern - Seattle, WA
Date: Sunday, Mar. 9, 2008
Opener: The Winterpills
The Winterpills
On their new CD, The Light Divides, the Winterpills are a dreamy, ethereal band whose songs are like a creamy soup of rhythm and harmony. Live, however, the group appears more like a standard folk-rock outfit. Lead singer Phillip Price alternates between acoustic guitar and electronic keyboard. His female counterpart, Flora Reed, mostly just sings tight-knit harmonies, but occasionally rips it on tambourine or keys. Electric guitar, bass, drums.The Tractor Tavern doesn't always have the best sound set-up, and this show saw the Winterpills' vocals coming across a bit muddy. That's unfortunate, considering the artistic level of wordplay and use of creative rhyme in their songs. To me, that's one of the most impressive things about this band, but they managed to pull of a great set, anyway—muddy vocals, and all.
Kris Delmhorst
"Let me just get a few FAQs out of the way," Delmhorst said as she entered her set. The crowd giggled, as it was quite obvious Delmhorst is pregnant. "June," she said. "And, I feel fine."With that out of the way, she ripped into a set constructed predominately of songs from her forthcoming album, Shotgun Singer. Backed up by the Winterpills, Delmhorst's songs were able to take on the band's dreamy qualities. Reed offered a sweet balance of close, tight harmonies to Delmhorst's often gritty alto.
Songs From Shotgun Singer
An early highlight of the set was "Midnight Ringer"—the song containing the words after which Delmhorst titled the forthcoming disc. It's a beautiful love song, and the presence of the Winterpills elevated it even higher, moving the crowd to a deeper level of silence (indeed, the place was pretty much silent for the whole set, a testament to the strength of Delmhorst's heady narrative lyrics).Other highlights were the rocky "To the Wire," and "1,000 Reasons," both hailing also from the upcoming release. She also performed a selection from her recent EP release, Horses Swimming. The record was named, she said, for the peculiar way she fingerpicks her guitar. Her husband says it looks like that scene in The Black Stallion when the horse is swimming after the boy. The song, "It's Only Love" was a beautiful tune, and Delmhorst performed it wonderfully solo.
Finally, after a very brief break, she and the band returned for a two-song encore featuring "Light of the Light" from her last full-length album, Strange Conversation.
Kris Delmhorst's new album is due out April 15, 2008. Visit her Web site for more information and a full tour schedule.
