Iron and Wine at Amoeba on Monday January 24th, 2011: Ladies And Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones -by Alyson Camus

I didn’t know Iron and Wine had become the Rolling Stones: the crowd making a line all around the building was already very large when I arrived at Amoeba one hour in advance, the equipment on stage was quite impressive, 5 musicians and roadies, no less, were installing them, and some Amoeba employees were shooting the show for a live stream using 4 different cameras!

I got lucky and asked an employee for a pass. It really depends whom I ask in this store, and as there are so many employees, I basically never talk to the same person. So thanks to this person I had access to the front, on the right side of the stage, a quite perfect spot to shoot pictures.

It was Amoeba’s first 2011 show, and it was quite a big one, a great way to begin the year for them, as they even had the new Iron and Wine’s album ‘Kiss Each Other Clean’ on sale, technically one day before its official release, on Tuesday.

After what it seemed an endless sound checking, Sam Beam appeared on stage surrounded by many musicians. I realized very soon I have had a complete misrepresentation of Iron and Wine, I remember a quiet acoustic music,… but trumpets? Saxophones? Two keyboards and two drum sets? Not really quiet! And the sound is new, mostly happy and upbeat, ..wow I was completely wrong. But Sam Beam is no Mick Jaegger, with his beard, classic outfit and polite talking, he seems to be the complete opposite of a rock star, and performs with the greatest simplicity and without any artifice. He joked a little bit about the store and how anybody could have any paycheck left with a store like Amoeba in the neighborhood.

I got to see the setlist after the show thanks to someone who had taken it from the stage, and, despite my lack of expertise about Beam’s repertoire, I got the songs’ titles, most of them from the upcoming album of course.

But even though you don’t know Iron and Wine, the sound is right away catchy, and surprisingly familiar.

‘Tree by the river’ sounded like a folky upbeat melody, very 70s-inspired, with flute, trumpet, saxophones, and even female vocals, a sort of nostalgic-retro adventure, whereas ‘Big Burned Hand’ had curiously some elements of funk, something I totally did not expected from Iron and Wine; it was probably because of many things, but that sax and wobbling keyboard combination was adding a Stevie Wonder feeling to the whole thing.

He also sang older songs from his 2007 ‘The Shepherd’s Dog’ album, ‘Boy with a coin’, an almost jazzy part, and ‘House by the sea’, which had a tropical beat which totally turned African when the saxs began their part, and ‘My lady’s house’ from a 2005 EP ‘Woman King’, during which he laid down his guitar and only crooned with his smooth and melodious voice

‘I thought it would be a good idea to play every other song on a different tuning, it’s a lot of fun’, he said as he was changing his guitar before each song.

A beautiful thing was happening on ‘Half Moon’, when the doo-wop backup vocals were repeating themselves and his voice was floating above, whereas ‘Me and Lazarus’ seemed much more experimental with its weird electronic sounds, and ‘Rabbit Will Run’, with its slow and quiet start, became a long epic maze of layered sounds, jazzy guitars and keyboards, sad horns, mixed with melancholic vocals.

We were quite far from the calm and acoustic songs of ‘Our Endless Numbered Days’, his 2004 album, the sound is fuller and bigger, but I am not the one who will complain.

Setlist:
Tree by the river
Big Burned Hand
House by the sea
Half Moon
Boy with a coin
My Lady’s house
Me and Lazarus
Rabbit Will Run

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTIiH41seTw&w=500&h=390]

Iron and Wine at Amoeba on Monday January 24th, 2011: Ladies And Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones -by Alyson Camus

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