Approaching Richards this night, there's a scribbled green sharpie marker sign that states the original openers would not be here for this show, and instead, local openers would be taking their place. It was a band called Attics & Cellars (announced as "Sparrow" which is apparently their former name), which is a name I think I have heard before floating about town, but I had never seen them. Well, it was gorgeous. I'm a sucker for strings, as you all should well know by now, and what I walked into was a trio of gals on violins and cellos, perched on various stools across the stage, and alongside them, one guy who sang and played piano. For being strings, it was quite uppity - not exactly of 'fiddling' proportions, but certainly lively, and the songs themselves with the vocals had a distinct indie-pop sound. This is not a niche band - they are playing accessible songs, just with unusual instruments. Their performance was swift and very casual. Being a last-minute addition, I suppose the set was a bit hastily thrown-together, and the members on stage bantered over what songs to play and made jokes amongst themselves between tunes. The lights above them were rich and colourful - it was just a great start to the evening.









Following this, people mushed frontward for the set by Sparklehorse. I was already pleased to see that set up on the stage was a set of silver sparkly drums. How appropriate! Now, I'm a bad indie kid who hasn't really paid any attention to Sparklehorse since about 2000 when I managed to score a play copy of "It's A Wonderful Life" from my job at a local record shop. I remember really liking the album, but I didn't listen to it much over the years, and there was so much else all the time to distract me musically. So hard to keep up! So, shame on me, throw tomatoes if you want, I don't mind. Eventually, out they wandered. Such an unassuming cast of characters! Sparklehorse has been putting out albums for quite a while so they bypassed the uberhipster movement I suppose, but perhaps because of this, they end up being even more hip. And such soft music. Such soft music. Barely audible glowy purrs, slow, kerplunkitty guitars, just sailing along. The audience was mesmerized and happy as hell. I took it with a wee grain at the outset because I was somehow expecting something a little more powerful, but figured maybe this was just an interludey intro sort of thing. I was half right.







The majority of the songs were of that slow, even pace, and to be honest, I found myself a bit put off and perhaps even bored at times. But now and then, they'd throw in a song that had phenomenal sounds and power, with bandleader Mark Linkous stomping at his huge array of pedals surrounding him and his guitar, stepping back on the stage where a mysterious fan that I never quite discovered the location of would whirl his hair up about his head, where it would catch the fire of the red lights behind him. Stunning. Those selections perked my ears up to what he had to offer the rest of the time when I was thinking, oh geez, just do something already.









I slowly realized, okay, there's more to this than just syrupy songs. They're syrupy for a reason. Linkous hasn't had what one would call an easy life over the last decade or so. And all this manifests itself in music that is unerringly upsetting. Maybe comforting in a weird way, but mostly just upsetting. The songs are creative, and once I moved to the back of the room after photographing, I was happy I did, because the sound was a million times better out there. Linkous had a couple of different attachments on his microphone, and when I was standing up front, I couldn't tell the difference between the two of them when he alternated, other than that on one of them, you couldn't hear him as well. But from the back, the music lifted and rose forth, and even the minimal movements the band made on stage became more prominent and engaging.









Speaking of movement, the one definite point of visual interest was the drummer along for this tour. Wow, was he ever animated. Any arm that wasn't actually drumming at a given point in time would be raised high over his head, prepared to strike down at the next opportunity. He threw his head back and made pained, dramatic faces. Really, quite a sight.









The coup de grace was the tail-end of the set where suddenly the sounds emanating from stage turned into an ear-splitting cacophony of raging noises that went on and on and on.... and... the gracious uber-short one-song encore was interesting. One song! Not one for fanfare I suppose. Very nice night - I left impressed with Sparklehorse. They are a band to grow into for sure.

Elsewhere

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