SPARKLEHORSE @ Club Soda

By Omar Husain - Hooked On Sonics - 02/24/2007

Sooooooo today was the day. I had been excited about seeing Sparklehorse for a while now, having never had the opportunity before, and this whole week leading up to the show I'd been on a big-time Sparklehorse marathon. So did it live up to my expectations? Sorta. With five years between It's a Wonderful Life (2001) and his latest Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain (2006) and as many years between since Mark Linkous has toured and performed in public, I was hoping for a pleasant surprise, similar to how happy I was with how great Dreamt ended up being after such a long absence from putting anything out.

OK, I wasn't hoping for a "pleasant surprise", I was hoping for a phenomenal/life-changing experience. Yeah, I set the bar ridiculously high and kinda overhyped the show in my head a bit. I've been a big fan of Linkous' odd dream-inspired imagery and surreal lyrics and interesting mix-and-match of different genres and instruments in weird, idiosyncratic packages for quite some time, plus the man himself is pretty darn interesting, from stories of a year-long recovery after a freak accident involving OD'ing on a cocktail of prescription painkillers and alcohol, to my favourite story about how he shrouded the poppy hooks of Good Morning Spider's "Happy Man" with fuzz, radio static and other noises after hearing that Capitol was eyeing it as a possible radio single. Linkous is like an eccentric crazy musical genius, similar in ways to Tom Waits, but maybe more adventurous musically, but at the same time oddly more accessible.

With a fairly good turnout for the show, the first thing I noticed walking in was that this was one of the most age-diverse crowd I've ever witnessed at a show. From late-teens to twentysomething young hipsters, to older fortysomething music fans, it was nice to see how Mark Linkous' schizo folk-indie-whatchamacallit music has reached a varied set o' people. Well played, Mark, you're alright.

Taking the stage after numerous "crowd-starts-to-clap-yet-nobody-is-on-stage" moments, Linkous and company gently eased the audience into the evening, starting the show off with the nice version of the soft "Spirit Ditch" off their debut Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. Throughout the show, the sound was phenomenal. Every instrument was perfectly mixed and the volume was just perfect, loud enough without being overpowering, and not too quiet either (I spent the bulk of the evening sans earplugs due to the comfortable volume). Linkous is generally not a loud rawker, but Sparklehorse does kick up some dust at times, and the transitions from slow brooders to rockers was seamless.

The show’s first big highlight came only two songs in, when the band started It's a Wonderful Life’s "Apple Bed", with bassist Polly Jean Brown doing a fine job of providing the backing vocals that the Cardigans’ Nina Persson does on the record. A nice calm, almost brooding tune, in the second verse Linkous and guitarist/keyboardist Chris Michaels changed it up from the recorded version and started laying down distortion-heavy guitars while drummer Johnny Hott powered up a churning beat. Then at the drop of a hat, both Linkous and Michaels dropped to their knees, almost synchronized, and completely went to town on their pedals, filling the hall with squalls of feedback and fuzzy white noise. It was utterly beautiful. From there on, it would be hard to top that song’s performance.

"Piano Fire" got a little re-working too, and while the reaction to the first couple bars of the song was enthusiastic (from yours truly too, that's my jam), the slightly sped-up version didn’t gel too well (and the crazy gal going full-out hippie dancing next to me wasn't helping either). Still, it was great to hear, and I wasn't expecting it either, not having seen it on the couple setlists I'd seen from the tour so far.

As enigmatic Linkous may appear to be, in all the interviews I've read with him he seems to come across as a polite gentleman, and it was nice to see him, while otherwise quiet with no in-between crowd banter, cracking a shy smile every time the crowd would react positively to a song, especially for new material like Dreamt’s single "Don’t Take My Sunshine Away". While Linkous, Michaels and Brown were pretty much stationary during the entire set, Hott was providing much entertainment with his frenetic drum fills and flamboyant drumming. Arms flailing around, he stuck out from the rest of the band more than just fashion-wise (Linkous and Michaels were dressed formally in blazers and Brown was wearing a dress, while Hott was all T-shirt and bandana). Initially it was kinda funny, but man, dude can play the drums and provided some nice energy to the show.

Closing out with Good Morning Spider's "Pig", Linkous and the gang proved just how loud they could get, and man, it was beautiful. Extending the bridge a few minutes more, Linkous and Michaels filled it with fuzz, again on their knees coaxing swirling sheets of white noise from their pedals while Hott improvised like a maniac on his kit. The whole scene had the venue filling with sound to the point that it felt like the hall was gonna explode. It was such an awe-inspiring moment, that all doubts that they wouldn't be able to top the "Apple Bed" performance were put to rest. Linkous then hopped back up, strummed out the last few crunchy barre chords of the song, and the set was finished.

Coming back for the encore, the band instead picked a couple smooth numbers to bring the night to a close. It's a Wonderful Life's "Days Be Gold" received a warm welcome from the crowd, and then they ended the night similar to how they started it, with something from Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot with a fantastic choice and performance of "Homecoming Queen". With that, Linkous waved to the crowd, offered a sincere "Thank you so very much" and disappeared off the stage with the rest of his band. While it was a pretty solid set list, some notable omissions like "Shade and Honey", "Ghost in the Sky" or "Happy Man" would have made it my dream setlist, but still, ridiculously high expectations aside, it may not have been a life-changing experience, but it still was a great show.

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