Jose Gonzalez / Tiny Vipers @ the Showbox

People are strange. They say Ann Coulter is funny. They pay a $20 cover to have a conversation in a club. At the Showbox a few weeks ago, we saw Lavender Diamond, opening for the New Pornographers, cut their set short after telling the audience it was hard to play with all the talking going on. So we were worried heading back to the Showbox for the Jose Gonzalez/Tiny Vipers show because neither of them promised to be able to crush a babbling crowd into submission like the Pornographers could, and did.

In fact, there was a low roar of laughter and chatter throughout Sub Pop's Tiny Vipers [MySpace] set. Jesy Fortino sung out more than we've ever heard before, but even so much of the time we were straining to pick out words here and there from her songs, all of which sound like they might be based on traditional laments about sailors drowning in a storm. We recognized "Swastika" from Hands Across the Void. (You can download "On this Side" [mp3] here.) She played about 30 minutes, with two guitarists -- one in a hoodie, one not -- and none of them made no attempt to connect with the audience, other than a muttered "Thank you" from Jesy as she headed offstage. We don't think she even introduced the band.

When Jose Gonzalez [MySpace] showed, there was a roar of appreciation, and it finally got quiet. We'd never heard him live before, and were astonished at how he tore into his acoustic guitar like the strings went to eleven. He demonstrated his fierce classical finger-picking and strumming skills, and sang in a forceful, kindly tenor that reminded us (at times) of Jim Croce mashed up with Antonio Jobim. About four songs in, after an instrumental piece, the chatter started back up and maintained a consistent buzz throughout the remainder of the set and encore. Quite a bit of the setlist came from his first album Veneer, not as much from the new In Our Nature. The song people were waiting for was "Heartbeats" (by The Knife), but he also did covers of Massive Attack's "Teardrop," Kylie Minogue's "Hand on Your Heart," and Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart," which closed the evening and left everyone walking out humming.