speed of dark

Kevin Schneider, left, and Jonathan Meiberg, right, of Shearwater
Last Wednesday night at the Echo, I was fortunate to attend the kick-off performance of Shearwater's current tour. Pitchfork has listed Shearwater's current album Rook as one of the Most Overlooked Records of 2008, and that is a sad place to see this wonderful album, which happens to be at the top of my favorites of 2008 so far (see my album review). If you discover only one new band this year, Shearwater should be that band.

The hour-long set came from Shearwater's most recent albums--Rook, Palo Santo (2006), and "Mountain Laurel" from Thieves (2005). These choices showcased the stunning range and beauty of leader Jonathan Meiburg's voice, from delicate falsetto that barely tickles your eardrum ("I Was a Cloud") to powerful vocal statements that shake the house ("Century Eyes").

I asked Meiburg when he discovered he could sing like that, and he said, "I've been singing as long as I can remember. I sang in church for many years, which actually is kind of restrictive in some ways that I've been trying to get away from." The church influence is not surprising; what remains from it gives Shearwater dignity, depth, and spirituality, but with more of an Eastern philosophy than a Western one.

"I try to write in a way that reflects more than a single aspect of life," Meiburg told me, "where the good and the bad are tied together, because that's how life is." The eloquence in his lyrics bears that out, with themes contrasting the fear that man will destroy Nature with the conviction that Nature will shrug off any shackles we try to put on her--and questioning what price Man will pay to either win or lose this battle.

The Eastern connection is further emphasized sonically onstage by strange, highly-textured interludes between songs that evoke the cold, impassive grandeur of the Himalayas and on Rook in the instrumental track "South Col." Thor Harris, drummer and general all-around musical handyman of Shearwater, told me before the show that the band members share a common goal of creating these sounds without resorting to electronics.

Sometimes the band uses common instruments to produce the unusual sounds: bassist Kim Burke made deep, moaning notes like whale-songs with her bow. Thor used the same bow on the edges of the xylophone keys to make little zings. He also played an instrument he told me is a waterphone, made by Richard Waters and based on Tibetan water drums (see photo below). Eerie sounds are produced when a bow is drawn across the pipes.

Below left: Kim Burke smiles and plays her lovely electric upright bass

Above right: Thor Harris applies the bow to the waterphone
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Setlist:
1. On the Death of the Waters (with Thor on waterphone)
2. Red Sea, Black Sea
3. Mountain Laurel
4. Rooks (live, recorded in studio)

Meiburg announced, "This song is dedicated to the LaBrea Tar Pits," which the band had visited earlier in the day and were very impressed with.

5. Every Hook, Every Eye
6. Leviathan, Bound (live, recorded in studio)
7. Seventy-four, Seventy-Five
8. Snow Leopard

(Definitely one of my very favorites. Kim introduced this song with some squeaky bits on the bass. Meiburg sang with such force, I thought every glass in the place might burst, but miraculously they held up.)

9. I Was a Cloud (live, recorded in studio)

In our show, Thor played clarinet, waterphone, and xylophone, including brushing the edges of the xylophone keys with the bow.

10. Century Eyes (Very powerful song, very strong live)
11. Hail Mary

Encore: Tomboy

Above, detail of Meiburg's banjo, which features sketches of male and female ivory-billed woodpeckers, which were thought to be extinct until a possible sighting was reported in Arkansas in 2004, to the delight of American bird-lovers. Meiburg has a degree in ornithology.



Shearwater's current tour will eventually take them to the U.K. and Europe, but Meiburg told me they'd be back to L.A. I would like to see that happen, and when it does I hope they will have added "The Hunter's Star" (from Rook) to the setlist.

Show Schedule:
08/30/08 - Salt Lake City , UT @ Urban Lounge, w/Jennifer O’Connor
08/31/08 - Denver, CO @ Hi Dive, w/Jennifer O’Connor
09/01/08 - Albuquerque , NM @ Launchpad, w/Jennifer O’Connor
09/04/08 - Austin, TX @ Mohawk, w/Jennifer O’Connor
09/10/08 - Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
09/12/08 - Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie
09/13/08 - Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival
09/14/08 - Oxford, UK @ Zodiac
09/15/08 - Glasgow, UK @ Captain's Rest
09/16/08 - Manchester, UK @ The Roadhouse
09/17/08 - London, UK @ Bush Hall
09/18/08 - London, UK @ Rough Trade East
09/19/08 - Dublin, IR @ Whelan's
09/20/08 - Belfast, IR @ Speakeasy
09/21/08 - Galway, IR @ Roisin Dubh

Website | Label: Matador Records | Lyrics pdf
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