Last night, in Washington, DC, The Black Cat Backstage (the downstairs, more intimate room at the Black Cat) played host to a great night of music. Sharon Van Etten, who got such great press from NPRMusic during SXSW, opened for the North Carolina based freak folk band, Megafaun and those of us in attendance were definitely given a treat.
From the beginning of Van Etten’s set the crowd stood or sat attentively but with the standard opening-act-respectful-distance-from-stage buffer in place. That, until after the first song, Sharon cut to the chase and encouraged folks to gather close. Buffer broken, so began a well received set of original material (and one cover- see the clip below.) Van Etten’s voice shimmers in the room as she accompanies herself on a striking, red Gibson electric guitar. These, along with her strong lyrics and enchanting sense of humor as she chatted from the stage made it definitely worth arriving early to see and hear her perform.
Check out this brief clip that I shot of her covering Blaze Foley’s “Oooh Love”:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UzO01vruXU[/youtube]
Megafaun came to the stage with no announcement or fanfare and proceeded to gush about being such fans of Sharon Van Etten and how they were thrilled to have finally seen her perform. (in fact, the moment she hit the stage, the trio bounded from the backstage door and into the crowd to watch.) My setlist notes are a jumble but they leaned heavily on the most recent release, “Gather Form & Fly”. I think the opener was “Kaufman’s Ballad” which, with it’s eerie harmonies set a great tone for the night.
Early in the set they crept off the stage mid-song and played & sang (drummer Joe Westerlund brought along a tambourine) from amidst the audience. This and their obvious (and stated) excitement over their first US headlining tour (last night was the first date, evidently) brought the crowd and the band together as a unit for the rest of the evening. Asking a trivia question from the stage, (“What’s Brad’s favorite basketball team?”) they offered a prize to the audience member who answered first. I was quick and close at hand and won the coveted can of Sprite. Thanks guys.
It’s hard to narrow down stand out songs when the entire show was of a fairly high level. “Guns” flowed nicely with some feedback and samples into “The Fade”. This was the first sign that Megafaun is not straight folk group. They stretched and spaced out several times in the set always resolving with either another verse or a whole new song. They played a new song (due on their July EP) entitled, “Volunteers” and, despite their worries about not having played it live, it went down quite well. “The Longest Day” and “Gather, Form & Fly” followed and were each well played.
Next, they closed the set with “Where We Belong > Columns > The Process”. This trio of songs was a powerful punch in the face. The segues were spacey & noisy and awesome. Westerlund pulled out a violin bow and played the edges of his cymbals while banjo/guitar player Phil Cook knelt on the stage tweaking knobs and switches. Bass player/guitarist, Brad Cook (Phil’s brother) did likewise but he also drew on a rhythm pad which he had connected to a macbook onstage. Check out the transition from Columns > The Process below:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24bMjctAa6s[/youtube]
After what seemed like a two second break, the band reappeared for their encore. They ran onstage, each grabbing an instrument, and then walked down into the audience once again where they led the room in the song “Worried Mind.”
So ended a great night of music. They are on tour now, so be sure to get out and see these artists when and wherever you can!
Megafaun Website : http://www.megafaun.com
Sharon Van Etten Website: http://www.sharonvanetten.com
All of my photos from the show: