Seattle Subsonic

Bon Iver Show @ Neumos 8/30/08

September 1st, 2008

Just as with the Raconteurs show at Neumos a few months back, this show featured top-notch artists at their peak playing ‘you- shoulda- been- there’ sets. The sound was great, the energy was better and the crowd was enrapt.
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Night Canopy (AKA Amy Blaschke) was up first, and Amy more than held up her end of the bargain in performing her songs without benefit of backing musicians. This is always my worry with acoustic and/or folky bands whose recorded music features multiple contributors and layers of instrumentation and production–how are they gonna pull it off live with or without a band? Amy single-handedly nailed it.
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Night Canopy covers a lot of ground, with vocals ala Chan Marshall & Neko Case, drawing on song structures reminiscent of The Beach Boys, Blondie and even Jesse Sykes, and the home demos sound as if Amy’s backed up by The Shins. No easy trick–and even tougher to reproduce live with just a guitar and one voice. Amy delivered, and she’s definitely a local artist deserving of a listen and a live look. Check out her MySpace to see if you disagree with my assessment (go ahead, disagree–I can take it).

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Next up was ‘Gus’ AA Bondy. Here was a confident, skilled performer playing songs which are not exactly ‘disposable pop fluff’. You never know how well a relatively-unknown-’round-here edgy, gritty & witty performer will come across to nicey-nice Seattleites. That’s where song craft and performance chops separate the men from the boys. Gus quickly dispensed with the awkward formalities, launching into a compelling set playing a flawless finger-picking style, with a commanding delivery that brought to mind the vocals of Ray LaMontagne, the hooks of Velvet Underground, and the storytelling of Cash and Cohen. Bondy quickly drew the respect of the crowd and when he exhorted the entire Bon Iver band to join him onstage for his last song, “American Hearts”, he truly won over the hearts of all in attendance. I urge you to give him a listen here http://www.myspace.com/aabondy

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Bon Iver emerged after a short intermission and made quick work of introducing themselves, sharing that this was the end of the tour, and that they were psyched to play and give it their all. And that they very much did. If you don’t know BI’s “For Emma, Forever Ago”, you owe it to yourself to give it a spin. And don’t just give it a half-ass song or two. This album is a cohesive work from start to finish. Justin Vernon’s vocal style is not for everyone, and yet it so perfectly communicates the moods of the album. Bon Iver are now more than just Justin and an album of multi-tracked vocals. They are now a full-fledged band, and one hell of a band at that. They somehow managed to produce the vast majority of the bells and honks and string washes and clangs and everything else that is intertwined within the songs of “For Emma”–and short of backing up Gerald McBoingBoing, I don’t know if they could’ve done more to faithfully reproduce one of last year’s most underappreciated albums. And they did it all while being funny, warm, even dorky at times. They’re extremely likable, and they rocked the house. It’s not often I would find myself wanting to hear more of 4 guys singing harmony together–it’s just not what turns my crank–but these guys and these songs are so good at their essence, that I found myself amazed and entranced and clapping wildly for more. Justin told us this was the greatest tour and time of his life, and that it would not be the last. Judging by everything we saw this night, there can be no doubt about that.
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P.S. Bon Iver will be on Conan this week (not sure when, so watch for it).
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An outstanding night at Neumos, and a sort of triumph to see that even during the height of the mighty Bumbershoot, three folksy bands could pack the house and tear it down in such a memorable way.