Last evening was a cold, wet, traffic-clogged, cluster-fest of a rainy night, but despite it all we headed out anyway for a show at The Earl. We hadn't been to The Earl since we saw the Austin, Texas band Loma there back on April 26. That was 6 1/2 months ago, probably the longest we've been away from The Earl in years. We shan't let that happen again. Coming back in felt like coming back home again, and happily another Austin band, Thor & Friends, were the opening act to greet us back.
Got to love the vintage Jimmy Carter sticker and the Woodie Guthrie tribute.
Thor's music is closer to neo-classical minimalism than to rock or pop, and we really, really like what he's doing. It brought back memories of Steve Reich concerts and long-forgotten Harry Partch and Terry Riley albums, and if you don't understand that this is what we like, then you probably have no clue why we're so excited about next year's Big Ears Festival (where Thor & Friends should be honored guests) or even who we are for that matter. This is right up our alley. This is what we live for.
The nucleus of Thor & Friends is, of course, percussionist extraordinaire Thor Harris (Swans, Shearwater) as well as Sarah “Goat” Gautier (left) and rhythmic gymnast Peggy Ghorbani (center), who worked a toothpick between her teeth the entire set. The three create most of the ensemble's sound on marimbas and other mallet instruments, but last night they were also backed by Aisha Burns on violin and by Wye Oak's Andy Stack on alto sax. There was also an accordionist back there behind them all as well. They started promptly as 9:00, played one extended 45-minute composition, and the entire audience was spellbound throughout. During the quieter passages, the often chatty Earl audience was nearly silent, a rarity for the frequently noisy club.
Here's a little taste for y'all:
Bonus points: Thor ended the set with a shout-out for Stacey Abrams.
Thor's set would have been enough to have let us leave satisfied and alone would have justified heading out on such an awful night. But the headliners were Baltimore's Wye Oak, who played as sincere and charming a set of songs as one could possibly hope for.
Wye Oak is fronted by guitarist/singer/keyboardist Jenn Wasner, with Andy Stack playing drums, usually with just one hand, leaving the other free for additional keyboards and electronics. It's pretty impressive how full the duo's sound can be for just two people, and for this tour they brought along a bassist to save Andy from at least one additional chore. Wasner has a clear, bright voice that can rise up above the instruments and at this point they've written a pretty good back-catalogue of well-crafted songs. There's really nothing here to dislike, and the evening had a special charm to it as Wasner charmed the audience and the audience charmed her right back.
We've seen Wye Oak many times before, going way back to 2011, and we've also seen Wasner's side project Flock of Dimes on a couple occasions. But last night, it felt as if we had forgotten how good they can be - or maybe just how much we enjoy listening to a live band. We did remember we liked Wye Oak enough to head out on a night as wretched as last night, and for Wye Oak repaid our effort a hundredfold. It was hands down the most enjoyable Wye Oak performance we've seen to date.
We didn't do a "30 Seconds" video, but here they are in a studio session in Seattle. If anything, Jenn's voice sounded even clearer last night than in this studio session, and she did manage to hit some of the high notes at The Earl that she seems to struggle for below.
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