I had the fortune of seeing Iron and Wine perform with an orchestra.
Samuel Beam played a really good show. I was very glad I was able to attend. The first half was a special concert that incorporated a majority of the songs from the album Our Endless Numbered Days. I have a few reactions, and also suggest picking up a copy of this record.
Initially, I expected, well, I didn't know what I expected. As we got closer to the location, The Kennedy Center, I began thinking more about the potential course of the event. The venue has a way of sculpting your foresight. I had never been to this place before, and had not looked at pictures, so it was a truly real-time reaction. What a building! Both inside and out, this is an amazing structure. Starting off in the parking garage underneath the facility, we enter through a clever tunnel into a grassy knoll which has an impressively expansive parking arrangement. We had the fortune of finding a spot very close to the elevators. The entry and exit feature a one-way flow, so it makes things much more streamlined.
We enter the elevator lobby and find a map that helps us know the general area to head. The Kennedy Center features multiple concert halls of varying sizes to accommodate an array of performing acts. Our show was in the Concert Hall. We enter the Hall of States from the elevator and are greeted with fancy marble(?) flooring on the long corridor. At the west end of the building, alongside the Potomac River, is the Grand Foyer, the main connection between the venues, which we take to the farthest south area. Our seats were (unfortunately) at the uppermost balcony and the rearmost row, which at least had the benefit of being out-of-sight for the other concert goers (for my twitching) but suffers from poor acoustic reception. Not to mention that Iron and Wine does not feature a particularly loud discography.
On the song selection, this was largely influenced by the 15th anniversary of the album, but was neither in correct order nor included all of the tracks. Some of the collaboration with the orchestra came from other semi-related (in context) songs from latter albums. Of the playlist, I was most excited to hear the work done to the album's first three and final two tracks. All of these were present, but not entirely how I was hoping for. Some of the reinterpretations were less profound than anticipated, like the extremely subdued rendition of On Your Wings, which featured far less percussive elements and an elongated vocal repetition of the final lines. Cinder and Smoke was wonderfully done, and added a particularly personal-feeling sadness. By far, the best parts of this performance were in the extraneous selections. The particular choice of intensities presented in this version of The Trapeze Swingers was devastatingly, intensely gripping.
Following the first half was a brief intermission, which was the dismissal of the orchestra, and resumed the concert as a mostly-solo acoustic set. This portion really showed off the personal character of the artist, wherein he told some stories and jokes, as well as stopped playing mid-song because he forgot the lyrics. This authenticity made for a more intimate experience. From that point he played the rest of the album's songs, mixed among a collection of good tunes from later records. At one point someone asked about being able to hear the song from the Twilight movie soundtrack, and he relied, "No vampire music. There are no vampires in DC." Ultimately, he did play Flightless Bird, American Mouth and answered the guest with, "See, that's why I couldn't play it back (a few minutes ago) because I planned to play it now." Also of note in this set was the grueling take on Resurrection Fern, possibly one of the best moments of the night.
A relatively rare opportunity to see a talented human play "little dippy songs" that we've grown up singing along to.
Samuel Beam played a really good show. I was very glad I was able to attend. The first half was a special concert that incorporated a majority of the songs from the album Our Endless Numbered Days. I have a few reactions, and also suggest picking up a copy of this record.
Initially, I expected, well, I didn't know what I expected. As we got closer to the location, The Kennedy Center, I began thinking more about the potential course of the event. The venue has a way of sculpting your foresight. I had never been to this place before, and had not looked at pictures, so it was a truly real-time reaction. What a building! Both inside and out, this is an amazing structure. Starting off in the parking garage underneath the facility, we enter through a clever tunnel into a grassy knoll which has an impressively expansive parking arrangement. We had the fortune of finding a spot very close to the elevators. The entry and exit feature a one-way flow, so it makes things much more streamlined.
We enter the elevator lobby and find a map that helps us know the general area to head. The Kennedy Center features multiple concert halls of varying sizes to accommodate an array of performing acts. Our show was in the Concert Hall. We enter the Hall of States from the elevator and are greeted with fancy marble(?) flooring on the long corridor. At the west end of the building, alongside the Potomac River, is the Grand Foyer, the main connection between the venues, which we take to the farthest south area. Our seats were (unfortunately) at the uppermost balcony and the rearmost row, which at least had the benefit of being out-of-sight for the other concert goers (for my twitching) but suffers from poor acoustic reception. Not to mention that Iron and Wine does not feature a particularly loud discography.
On the song selection, this was largely influenced by the 15th anniversary of the album, but was neither in correct order nor included all of the tracks. Some of the collaboration with the orchestra came from other semi-related (in context) songs from latter albums. Of the playlist, I was most excited to hear the work done to the album's first three and final two tracks. All of these were present, but not entirely how I was hoping for. Some of the reinterpretations were less profound than anticipated, like the extremely subdued rendition of On Your Wings, which featured far less percussive elements and an elongated vocal repetition of the final lines. Cinder and Smoke was wonderfully done, and added a particularly personal-feeling sadness. By far, the best parts of this performance were in the extraneous selections. The particular choice of intensities presented in this version of The Trapeze Swingers was devastatingly, intensely gripping.
Following the first half was a brief intermission, which was the dismissal of the orchestra, and resumed the concert as a mostly-solo acoustic set. This portion really showed off the personal character of the artist, wherein he told some stories and jokes, as well as stopped playing mid-song because he forgot the lyrics. This authenticity made for a more intimate experience. From that point he played the rest of the album's songs, mixed among a collection of good tunes from later records. At one point someone asked about being able to hear the song from the Twilight movie soundtrack, and he relied, "No vampire music. There are no vampires in DC." Ultimately, he did play Flightless Bird, American Mouth and answered the guest with, "See, that's why I couldn't play it back (a few minutes ago) because I planned to play it now." Also of note in this set was the grueling take on Resurrection Fern, possibly one of the best moments of the night.
A relatively rare opportunity to see a talented human play "little dippy songs" that we've grown up singing along to.
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