(This is a follow up to Friday’s teaser post.)
As I walked in to see Iron & Wine (myspace) at the Swedish American Hall last Thursday, it was not lost on me that, even though I saw his early tour through the Great American, I had never seen the band in such a small venue. And I probably won’t have another chance.
After a short set from the opener, Magic Leaves, Sam Beam came on stage alone with just his Taylor acoustic guitar. After a short introduction and asking who in the audience had been to the previous night’s show–a few, incidentally–he launched into “Upward Over the Mountain”, a gorgeous song on, and contains the title lyrics to, Creek Drank the Cradle. From there, he went through a set of songs that were from all over his catalog, and even some new songs and ones that were only released in very limited form. You’d think this might be to promote his upcoming rarities compilation but a) the set list was decided by a poll on his website and b) some of the rarities that he played aren’t on that compilation.
Anyway, he played really well and, more than that, he was fully invested in his performance. Let’s be honest–the type of fan that buys tickets the minute they go on sale aren’t the type that needs to be won over, so it can be easy for the artist to give a good-but-not-great performance. Beam was giving 100% here, though he did flub or forget a few words, to the amusement of the audience. He was funny througout–he’s got the banter nailed at this point and it seems he enjoyed the conversation with the audience that was allowed by the small venue.
Besides “Upward Over the Mountain”, other highlights were a sublime version of “Southern Anthem” that included a falsetto line that I’ve never heard before and “Such Great Heights” that produced an almost unreasonably giddy response. The final two + encore were an amazing little part of the set: “Naked as We Came”, “Trapeze Swinger” and “Sodom, South Georgia”. Despite some of my overwhelmingly positive reaction to the show undoubtedly coming from nostalgia, I can say that this was a great show on many levels. Days later I still have a grin on my face when I think about it.
Set list for the 5/7/09 show:
- Upward Over the Mountain*
- Jesus the Mexican Boy
- Woman King
- God Made the Automobile
- Cinder & Smoke
- Peng? [in the printed set list I oversaw but not in my notes]
- Southern Anthem*
- Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car
- Her Tea Leaves
- House By the Sea
- Such Great Heights*
- Bird Stealing Bread
- Godless Brother in Love
- Innocent Bones
- Naked as We Came*
- Trapeze Swinger*
=encore= - Sodom, South Georgia*
* there was magic in these.