I'll say right off the bat; I kind of have a little nostalgic love affair with Pete Yorn, circa 2001. I was very happy at the prospect of seeing him play again at the lovely Commodore.



I managed to catch about two songs of Aqualung. They sounded delightful in an Elbow type of way. Definitely one to keep an eye on.



Yorn came on surprisingly fast afterwards. His songs are songwritery - gentle and melodic, a bit on the lovelorn side of things, in tone at least if not always lyrically, and up-tempo at intervals. As such, it's a pretty calm show. During bursting outros, he'd swing and storm about the stage with his guitar for some moments, but by no means was he about to inflict damage upon himself or his bandmates or anything inanimate. The crowd too was uncommonly well-behaved. Not a sold-out crowd, and they took good use of the extra space in the room by leaving room between themselves and the next person over. Weird. But, enraptured. Yorn holds a power. It's a power that I wasn't quite as reeled in by as I figured I might have been. I was waiting to have my heart twisted all sorts of shades of pain and adoration over listening to him, and I didn't. It was light. It was airy. It had moments. But I was not stricken silent and stationary by the performance.





So here I am, thinking a couple things about why I felt this way. Maybe I was just a bit distracted, or maybe the new stuff threw me off because I don't really know it well, or maybe something's changed a bit. Last time I saw this guy play, he was in the Plaza of Nations. You have to give a bit of grace on the sound quality there. Really, who designed this thing? I think it was supposed to be designed to enhance sound, but whoever was in charge screwed it up. Or maybe it was designed to enhance the sound of Expo-'86-era synthesizer-based music instead of rock n roll twenty years later. Anyhow, the sound here had no issues. Maybe this was the problem? Not that there was anything very wrong with Yorn's show. He's charming somehow... a little ungainly, yet made up for by pure stylishness, a touch on the shoegazer hiding-behind-the-hair shy... cute, right? And when he speaks to his audience between songs, his voice is a bit flat and rushed, yet he has this small smile on his face and continually plays with his hair, as though he's giving a presentation in front of the class for the first time in grade school, or asking that cute girl out on a date. But his voice? This is an issue I hadn't been paying much mind to until the person I was with at the show (a Yorn newbie) made mention of not liking his voice all that much. I was about to defend it, and had to stop myself then... correct... his voice sounded... less fluid than it should. Well, I shouldn't say fluid. I should say 'appropriate.'





See, on the recorded versions, Yorn's voice is gritty and has a somewhat passively-graceless quality about it, as ifyou stumbled upon him jamming out in his bedroom on a guitar so loud that he can't hear his own voice over top of it. Not off-key so much as clearly concentrating more on the guitar than the vocals. But that casual nature was... charming! Perhaps because he magically has a way of punctuating the songs with a sudden squeak of something definitively emotive that catches your attention and makes you go, "ahhh that sneaky bastard, he DOES care after all..." but something about his performance at the Commodore here detached his voice from his performance. I have no idea why this was - a bad live mix? Impending cold? Maybe he's just not feeling it?



No matter - he played many old favourites off of "Musicfothemorningafter." It was nice, being transported back in time. Girls were dancing insanely at the back of the room, and cascades of local label and media reps were scattered calmly about the back of the room watching with interest. None of us have seen the guy in years in Vancouver. I suppose everyone was quite curious.



So, hidden Pete Yorn, making his understated, quiet return to the fancy Commodore Ballroom - come on back again. Bring your charm with you this time, but come on back.

Elsewhere

By Andy Scheffler
Photos : Andy Scheffler
Published : February, 2007.