Friday, March 19, 2010

Holy City

New Jerusalem
Annie's West, 3/18

There's an entire other evening of cool bands I have to go help carry the PA in for tonight, hopefully after catching Miles Kurosky at Waterloo. Quickly, before I lose track, I wanted to mention how much I enjoyed seeing New Jerusalem last night. I covered them for a Demo Sweat not so long ago and I liked their neo-folk tones very much. I did think they were a little too consonant for their own good. As a live band they correct for that, and that's why they had a clot of people collecting on the street outside of the open-air patio where they were playing.

They split the difference between modern folk and populist bar country, with the very lovely harmonies of their recordings intact but also an unexpected, and most welcome, blood-and-whiskey lead guitar. And a harp! Tasty clean-channel country-western electric guitar AND a harp, with no waiting! Without a drummer, their upright bass player did a sweet job of propelling the group and also adding sneaky hints of melody. They're still a little loose, but they put on a good show.

Later in the evening, while my bandmates and I were loading our stuff into four cars (possibly we could have done a more efficient job, but we did have to bring two entire PA setups), the Fall of Troy were playing in a tent right on the alley. I got to hear pretty much their whole set while I was humping speakers. And it was good.

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