The Pros and Cons of CSAs
Seattlest Pix 09Nov08
Weekly Around the -Ists
Seattlest Pix 09Nov09
Can't Miss It: Monday
When we got to the Crocodile last night, the Norwegian invasion was in full swing, with singer/songwriter Thomas Dybdahl [deebdoll] holding the audience in the palm of his hand. He's low-key and instantly likable, and a crooner of bittersweet verses about girls who have baggage ("Adelaide" and "Cecilia") and middle-aged men who need to break out of their routine ("Henry").
He closed with "From Grace," which he claims he wrote in his basement and ran upstairs to exclaim that he'd finally written the song that was gonna get him out of that dump. His family has since forgiven him. It's a good song. (You can download music videos at his site, but not mp3s.)
After Dybdahl's speedy 30-minute set, Willy Mason appeared, apologizing for a hoarse voice. He sounds astonishingly like Jerry Jeff Walker (for those of you not following Gulf & Western music, the elder, hippier brother to Jimmy Buffett) and his songs aren't that far off either. "Gotta Keep Walking," "Save Myself," and "We Are Strong" are footloose, neo-hillbilly/hippie anthems straight out of the Walker songbook. "The World I Wanted" changes things up with a down-tempo alt-country ballad about his father's life.
They are the kind of songs that use the word "bound," like "I am bound to go." Apparently the British eat this sort of thing up; the Crocodile folks went for it, too. There was hippie chick on violin, and his cousin Zach (who lives in Seattle) hopped up to take on mandolin duties.
So then we were all warmed up, ready for Sondre Lerche and his seductive, high-energy brand of Norwego-folk/pop. His roadie came out and set up the instruments. Then he came out and did a little tuning. Then he came out and did a little soundchecking. Then he came out and did a little more tuning. Then no one came out. We were checking the time, 11:00, 11:15, 11:25.
Finally Lerche bounded out, and tore into "Airport Taxi Reception" and "Tape" from his album The Phantom Punch (with extended between-songs drum solo), before digging into the past for...ah...we forget.
We had to run to catch a bus, and were annoyed at the rockstar touch of making 150 people who showed up on a Monday night stand around and wait, you know, for the energy to build. It's a drag, because Phantom Punch is full of great guitar, stop-and-start syncopated beats, and lyrical rushes as quick as opera buffo patter. The album fizzes like a shook-up bottle of soda all the way through. We just wish somebody had shaken Lerche up earlier.
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Odd.. the sign at the ticket taker counter said he was on at 11:30. Oh wait, he was. Why complain?
All I knew when I headed out is what it said on the site, show starts at 9:30pm, two other acts. They finished before 11pm.
Now maybe the Croc was expecting a huge flood of 11:30pm arrivals on a Monday night, I don't know. I just didn't appreciate the standing around for no particular reason when I knew I couldn't stay for the whole show already. I would have liked to get a few extra songs in.