Return of the Bald King

Last night at a half-full Neumo's, former Sunny Day Real Estate frontman Jeremy Enigk played a solo set to a crowd of reverent dudes and the women they had dragged there with them. Seriously, as we looked around the audience, there were a bunch of guys all into it, and a smattering of women bored out of their minds. Two girls in front of us (there with different dudes) spent most of the show answering phone calls and texting, obviously eager to get the hell out of there. We saw a grand total of one girl singing along with Enigk.

Not that there was much to sing along to. In a little over an hour, Jeremy played a baker's dozen of songs: five old ones (from 1996's much-heralded Return of the Frog Queen) and couple off of the United States of Leland soundtrack, while the rest of the set was comprised of new material from Enigk's forthcoming release on his label.

Jeremy seemed frustrated with his performance. His new songs didn't get as much applause as his old ones, he broke a few guitar strings, and there was something wrong with his keyboard, which required its replacement mid-set. He didn't have much to say to the crowd, and what he did say (after one song: "Gorgeous. Lovely. Nice.") wasn't of much import. The silence between songs and the time spent tuning was rather awkward; it was clear that Enigk was much more at home playing than interacting with his audience. Additionally, his two backing musicians (a drummer and a guitarist/keyboardist) were capable enough, but rather lackluster. In particular, the drummer's style---loud kickdrum and heavy cymbals---was ill-suited for Enigk's mellow music.

Along with the rest of the XX-chromosomed portion of the crowd, Seattlest found the performance to be less than compelling. So after the show, we asked our dude what exactly the deal was with Jeremy Enigk, and in return, we got a long tirade about the differences between Enigk at his prime and Enigk now. To wit: Young Jeremy Enigk resided in the lyrical realm of magical imagery. Mellifluous phrasing like "fly through window moonrise dream paradise" gave no thought to correct syntax in favor of conjuring emotion. But now, his songwriting has grown dull, with hackneyed rhymes and predictable chord progressions. There's nothing unique about what little emotion the lyrics evoke.

While he's still got those iron lungs he was known for in his Sunny Days, on his new songs, his voice is overly polished and he doesn't scream like he used to (though last night he did yell on the old stuff, sung as raw as it was recorded). On the other hand, it doesn't seem like he's writing for orchestral arrangements anymore, as he did on Frog Queen. Overall, it just seems as if he's lost his edge. Or as our dude, still a fan, put it, "It's more sad than anything....He wrote some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard...but he's no longer a one-of-a-kind treasure."