POSTED: Thursday, January 21, 2010, 5:06 PM
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| Photo | John Vettese |
See how these strange minds grow.
It starts out quiet as a mouse, fingerplucked acoustic guitar and brush beats on the drums. But as we'll learn, it's best not to let the mellow mood set the bar for your expectations of Andy Cabic and Vetiver. During the nomadic five piece's hour-long, very-sold-out set at Kung Fu Necktie last night, they ever-so-gradually built up the pace, pulling heavily at first from last year's Tight Knit. The ringing triangle on "Sister" was the initial crowd pleaser, a jaunty midtempo rhythm and pretty melody masking melancholic lyrics. Then there was the pepped up '60s pop of "Everyday," the acoustic guitar bouncing and drummer Otto Hauser bringing up the beat. Dude is totally the backbone of this band, going from an understated economy of percussion on the quieter moments, to a more emphatic beat the rousing 12-bar guitar jam "You May Be Blue" from the band's 2006 record To Find Me Gone. By the concluding cover of The Dead's "Don't Ease Me In," the sticks were hitting fast and fierce, Cabic was leaping and strutting, and the crowd seemed to forget that the night started on such a tender, tranquil note.
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| Photo | John Vettese |
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| Photo | John Vettese |
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| Photo | John Vettese |
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| Photo | John Vettese |
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| Photo | John Vettese |
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| Photo | John Vettese |
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| Photo | John Vettese |
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| Photo | John Vettese |
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| Photo | John Vettese |
A note on the opener, Meg Baird. My friend Dan turned to me during a break between songs and said "Funniest comment I heard from back there," gesturing to the logjam of yapping heads at the bar (Seriously, people? Talking over Meg Baird? WTF.), "Some guy said 'She looks very inexperienced.'" We shared a hearty laugh at this as Baird went into a rendition of "The Pearl," the sensual, surreal love-and-death mediatation from Espers III (and her standout moment on the record). She tours the world, has collaborated with some of the best musicians of the past 50 years, got to sit in on a set at Carnegie Hall ... but yeah, inexperienced, sure. What, good yapper, are you interpreting as inexperience? Is it because Baird sits onstage very erect, clutching the guitar tightly as she nimbly plucks its strings? Is it because her facial expression remains fixed while she plays? You think she's nervous, is that what it is? No, dude. That's called focus. Listen to her — Baird never hits a wrong note. She never plays out of tune. She nails each song, every time.
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| Photo | John Vettese |
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