Joanna Newsom
On Sunday I travelled up to Birmingham, with the purpose of seeing Joanna Newsom plus a host of support acts, all signed to the Drag City label. Many thanks to Davegotsu for allowing me to stay at his hotel house on Sunday night.
The gig took place at the Glee Club in the centre of Birmingham. It was easy enough to find - the very long queue was a bit of a giveaway. The event was completely sold out - hardly surprising, since Joanna's something of a hot property at the moment. The previous time I saw her, she was supporting Smog at the Zodiac, but even then most of the buzz seemed to be about her.
First act up was Six Organs Of Admittance (no, I don't know what it means either), a one-man-with-guitar affair. Lots of impressive guitar work, but I couldn't make out much of the lyrics since he was a bit quiet. He was well received by the audience considering he was the first act of four.
Next up were White Magic. Some piano, some guitar, and the first time to my recollection that I have ever seen a band playing gongs on stage. I really liked the slightly-eerie vocals, and again they were well received.
The final support act was Alasdair Roberts from Glasgow, and his selection of arrangements of traditional folk songs. I've heard some of his work before, and he didn't disappoint. Standout song for me was Molly Bawn, the tale of a girl who shelters from the rain under a bush, only to be shot by her betrothed who has mistaken her for a swan.
Joanna Newsom's performance was fantastic, despite the fact that she had to take a couple of short breaks to superglue her thumb back together, after splitting it during the previous night's performance. There were a couple of minor wobbles during the set, and she did wince quite a few times, but considering the pain it must have been causing her she coped extremely well. The setlist comprised the usual opener 'Yarn And Glue', most of the album 'The Milk-Eyed Mender', 'What We Have Known', and some other tracks that were either new or from the old EPs that I haven't heard. The applause was thunderous after each and every song, and there were two encores - I'm not sure if the second was entirely planned, but with the noise the crowd were making I don't think she really had much choice.
'What We Have Known' was written before the Iraq war, but it occurred to me during this performance that some of the lyrics act as a pretty good commentary on the WMD intelligence fiasco, and of how soldiers can be affected by their experiences and come back very different people:
And all the baby boys we've borne
With eyes averted from the storm
Sent off to die in perfect form
We know not now what we have known
Satellite photos, rhetoric
See how the euphemisms stick
And when they come back broke and burned
Those who return have not returned
As I said, the Iraq link is obviously coincidental due to the time the song was written, but this can still be taken as a war song. It's an interpretation that hadn't occurred to me before, mainly due to my not having listened to the lyrics properly.