The Conical Glass: Shear genius

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Shear genius

I always have a million and one excuses not to go to a rock show: they start too late; I don't like to stand that long; they're too loud; there are too many idiots with cell phones who text message through the shows; etc. At the Independent in San Francisco, there's the additional hassle of the club being in a part of town that's not easily accessible by public transit from the East Bay, and parking in that neighborhood can be exceedingly difficult. And yet, last night I decided not to be deterred by any of that stuff, because I had to see Shearwater. I have been completely obsessed with the band's album Palo Santo and its hauntingly majestic sound. I had no idea what the live Shearwater experience would be like, and tried to keep my expectations in check, especially since they were just the opening act (for the U.K. band Clinic).

The band is touring as a five-piece, but the star of the show is clearly frontman Jonathan Meiburg, whose soaring vocals sometimes remind me of the late Jeff Buckley. He started the set with an a capella number, and the entire set careened from subtle and muted to loud and rocking. Amazingly, the crowd mainly kept silent during the quiet bits, even though I suspect a lot of them had no idea who Shearwater was; a lot of people really seemed to be getting into their music. (That does not include the two women who pushed their way to the front about halfway through, only to whip out their cell phones and start text messaging. Then they started ostentatiously making out before one of them left to buy a beer. Grr.)

Most of the band members were multi-instrumentalists; Meiburg played banjo, guitar and keyboards, and others played trumpet, hammer dulcimer, clarinet and vibraphone, along with bass & drums. There were a few songs from the new album, Rooks, which will be out June 3 (I bought a copy at the show -- you can listen to a track, "The Snow Leopard," on my muxtape), and several from Palo Santo, including, hooray, all of my favorites -- "White Waves," "Hail Mary" and "Seventy-Four, Seventy-Five." The whole set was great, but the sheer beauty, power and drama of "White Waves" just about swept me off my feet. It felt like I was rediscovering how amazing live music can be.

Afterward, I decided to say hi to Jonathan, because I figured they should know that someone came out just to see them. He's very tall and was super polite and nice. He said they'd be back in San Francisco sometime in September, though he didn't know where -- I'm hoping the album does well enough so they can headline a place like the Great American Music Hall, but not so well that they start attracting a hipster crowd of text messagers and talkers. (Only acceptable text message to send: "Shearwater f'ing rocks." Then put the phone away.)

I wasn't too familiar with Clinic, although my friend Jeff is a fan and had posted a couple tracks from their new album Do It! on his blog a few days ago. The four members of Clinic perform clad in surgical masks and Hawaiian shirts, and began their set by playing Do It! in its entirety. I am not a huge fan of this approach, which I first encountered on Husker Du's Warehouse: Songs and Stories tour, but it seems to be the rage these days (even Shearwater are doing a couple shows, in Austin and New York, where they'll be playing Rooks from start to finish). Maybe it's gotten more popular since so many people cherry-pick tracks from iTunes these days, and bands want to make sure people get at least one chance to appreciate the entire work. I prefer it when bands mix it up a little. Anyway, after Do It!, they left the stage and came back a minute later for Part 2. We didn't stay for the whole set, because the volume seemed to be getting increasingly louder and my poor old feet and eardrums can only take so much, but I'd be interested in investigating them further.

When we got home we watched our TiVo'd "Dancing With the Stars" finale. I know Kristi Yamaguchi is kind of a ringer, since she's used to physical discipline and performing under pressure (I don't quite buy the fact that someone who has an Olympic gold medal cares that much about winning a cheesy mirror ball trophy), but if she doesn't win this competition, there's no justice.

posted by 125records @ 10:46 AM

2 Comments:

At 4:55 PM, Joe said…

Liz Phair is doing all of "Exile In Guyville" - acoustically - in NYC, SF, and Chicago some time this year. Guess you can expect acoustic "Rooks" in 15 years.
At 9:18 AM, Fowler Jones said…

Checking out Shearwater right now on my subscription service. Big thumbs up. Thanks for the tip