November 15 2008: Iron & Wine, Blitzen Trapper - Pearl Street Ballroom, Northampton MA

Went solo to this show, after working eight hours and with 12 more to look forward to starting 7am the next day. But I hadn't seen Iron + Wine as a full band ever, and only once otherwise, and Blitzen Trapper were opening. So I was looking forward to things.

Ran into Sasha and Sara and stuck with them on the right side of the stage through the Blitzen Trapper set, most of which I didn't know but much of which I enjoyed. They closed with "Wild Mountain Nation" and it was probably their best tune of the night. Also the only tune of theirs I listen to with any semblance of regularity (read: probably once every three to 5 months). Draw conclusions as you care to.

Folks were flocking a little too heavily to where Sasha/Sara were, as they often seem to do, so I headed over to the left side for the Iron/Wine set. The Iron/Wine main mude and a backing lady opened as a duo with "He Lays In The Reins," which was quite nice. And they went into "Upward Over the Mountain," one of my favorite tunes but with a tambourine keeping the beat, and with the beat being just a hair too quick for how I feel the song ought to be played, it lacked that certain something.

A few more tunes were played minimalist-style, mostly new ones I don't know. They did do "Sea and the Rhythm" though, fucking perfectly. Shame they couldn't have hit all their songs like that one though, cause after the acoustic numbers out came a fucking reggae band. Reggae for "Woman King," which kind of worked but mostly didn't. Reggae for new songs which just served to bore me. And reggae for "Sodom South Georgia," which didn't work to the extent that I wonder if a better song as ever been played so wrongly.

Show ended, and I walked home wondering why I'd lost sleep just to watch Hampshire kids get down instead of leaving the second "Sea and the Rhythm" finished.